Sandman
by Caledonia1986
Summary: A dangerous killer is stalking Tokyo's children. Will our favourite detective be able to stop the murderer preying on children? Rating strong T, but not yet M! Reviews are very much appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first Meitantei Conan fanfiction, though the idea for this has been in my head for some time. It will be a multichapter, I'm not sure how long it will be in the end, since I'm still in the process of writing it. I will however finish this, simply because its one of my Golden Rules^^ English is my second language and therefore it is possible that some typo's escaped my notice, though I did do my utmost to find them all. If you find a typo or a misused word, notify me and I'll change it. And don'T be put off by the way I write, its simply my style^^

**Warning**: **This is a very dark fanfiction and deals with issues that are not for the weak-hearted! Issues like kidnapping and torture, including terrible deaths and psychological terror and the aftereffects of it will be depicted herein. It you do not feel up for this, do not read! I have put it under the rating of T, simply because I feel it does not yet warrant a M-rating (despite the issues discussed here). So if you chose to ignore the rating, consider yourself warned then. Read at your own risk! **

**Disclaimer:** The characters of Meitantei Conan are not mine, I do not make profit from this and therefore you can't sue me. However, the killer is my own invention and may not be copied or used without my exclusive permission!

**Summary:** A dangerous killer is stalking Tokyo's children. Will out favourite detective be able to stop the murderer preying on children?

Reviews are appreciated, but keep in mind that English is my second language. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but try to be polite. Also, this fiction includes only CANON-PAIRINGS! 

Now, enjoy!

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**Sandman**

_Chapter 1_

Friday, 20th August 2011

It had begun again. That now all too familiar pull had returned. He could feel it, like a small animal burrowing through his brain, snatching at synapses and gnawing away at him. Vainly he tried to suppress it. Tried to stop the animal from gnawing further. He hated it when it happened. He couldn't remember then.

And lately, the lapses in memory had lengthened. And the periods between his memory loss had shortened. He didn't know why it happened, simply knew that it did. But by now he had come to understand that the pull he felt, that imaginary animal gnawing in his brain, somehow preceded the event. That it was the first thing he felt before he lost recollection. Soon, the animal inside would continue on to the next stage, at which point he would not be able to stop it anymore.

Sitting in the darkening gloom of night, while the shadows lengthened and the light faded, he tried to reel whatever was inside him back in. He grasped the small bottle of white pills, his fingers shaking while the animal gnawed on, reaching a point he was also familiar with. It was maddening, to be aware of it, but unable to stop it.

_Thats right... You cannot stop it... you never will be able to..._

Oh no, that voice again. Shaking his head while frantically opening the bottle, he tried his best to ignore. If he could ignore it just a bit longer, he'd take the medicine and the voice would be gone, just like the doctor had promised him. It would help. The medicine would help. Grasping two of the pills with his fingers, he popped them into his mouth, immediately biting down on them. That way they'd work faster.

Slowly, there was a sound. A quiet tune, somewhere out of space. He knew that melody. He knew it, but he had taken the medicine, he should not be able to hear it now, the medicine was supposed to help him, it was supposed to shut everything down. Shaking in earnest now, he covered his ear with his hands, trying to block the sound out.

But it wouldn't stop, it continued on, while the world grew ever darker around him.

_I told you you'd not be able to stop it..._

Oh, how he wished it would stop. How he wished that voice to be gone forever. How he wished for the medicine to work finally and allow him his life again, without the pull and the voice and the melody.

_Too late... I can't be stopped now..._

And darkness engulfed him, the animal gnawed on and the melody played, hauntingly and eerie. His mouth curved upwards, bared teeth like a bloodthirsty creature itself.

"No one can stop the Sandman..."

* * *

Friday, 27th August 2011

_Damn it, another one? _

That was his very first thought as he sat down to breakfast. Kudo Shinichi, famous high school detective, now trapped behind a pair of fake glasses and a fake name, in the body of a child. Edogawa Conan. The alias he had taken up since his life and everything he was had been shrunken down, quite literally. Since he had seen Vodka in a transaction with someone and Gin had drugged him, intending to kill him. Though unfortunately for them, it hadn't worked and his body had shrunk down to his seven-year-old self, giving him the perfect disguise. Yet, at the very least, he was still alive. Though he had unexpectedly been thrown back into a size he had hoped to leave behind forever, it allowed him to do his own investigation on the Black Organization.

But what had him riled up this specific morning, had nothing to do with the ones who shrunk him, it had to do with the headline of the newspaper Mouri Kogoro was reading. The old man was immersed in the sport articles, so it gave Conan time to read the article printed in bold lettering on the fron page.

**Another victim of the mysterious killer preying on Tokyo children! Fifth body found!**

It was true, lately there had been an increasing number of children going missing, only to turn up dead a few days later. Two days ago, Megure-keibu had visited Kogoro to talk to him about the case and Conan had listened in. Apparently what the paper stated was true, it was the fifth victim in one row. Normally one each month, but this month it had been the second one already. It was enough to drive parents and guardians all over Tokyo into a frenzy of concern, because there could never be a suspect located.

Reading the article while eating, Conan gathered all the facts he could, while ignoring the facts obviously thrown in by the paper to make this gruesome thing even more popular. Though "popular" was not a word that he'd normally associate with "child murderer", sometimes the papers added false facts to make their sales even bigger.

In this case the body discovered was one Higuya Hakano, age 7, living in Shibuya, Toyko. Her body had been discovered by someone walking their dog near a park, stuffed into a plastic bag and dumped into some shrubs. She was still bound and blindfolded, her small body severely beaten. Death by asphyxiation the police said, since there were choking marks on her throat. All in all, it sounded just like the others before young Higuya Hanako.

And though the paper stated it as five victims, in reality it was more like eight victims in total. Only the papers didn't knew that, they hadnt yet connected the first three victims to the rest of the kids being found dead. After all, the police had tried to withhold any form of connection for as long as possible from the press. And the first three were not entirely the same, some small details were slightly different, as if the killer had taken time to perfect his method. But still, it was the same MO, bound, blindfolded, beaten and strangled. All killed within the last seven months.

Conan suspected that before the day was over, Megue-keibu would call and get Kogoro's expertise. Which meant that he'd be able to glean a little more detail, perhaps then he'd even be permitted to say something. But at the very least he'd get some more facts. Without it, he couldn't really do much.

Looking up he saw that Kogoro's face was set in a stern frown, something so intense he rarely got to see it so plainly. The old man had a terrible habit to appear as dense as possible, and oftentimes he'd not show emotion so plainly, but now it was there. Plain anger. And it was obviously not directed at something he read among the sports column, since he hadn't turned the page for about twenty minutes. His eyes were looking at the newspaper, but they weren't moving, in their intensity nearly singing a hole into the paper. It was obvious that he was thinking about something else. And that something had him pissed. Severely at that.

"Ne, Oji-san? What's wrong?" he dared to ask, amping up the kiddie-voice and succeeded in drawing Ran's father out of his stare. For a moment the old man's eyes fixed themselves upon him and there was something else that flashed through his gaze. It was carefully hidden, but for that one heartbeat, Conan could see it anyway. It was concern. Directed at him, before it was hidden again.

Nonsense, the old man never was concerned about him. Why would he? All the old man ever did was bark at him and give him noogies, sometimes even removing him quite forcefully from a crime scene. There was no way Mouri Kogoro would be concerned about him.

"Nothing, brat! Eat your breakfast and get to school already!" the older man barked right back at him, as was expected. At least he hadn't received a noggie so far.

_Not that I have any intention of getting one..._

Choosing to accept that whatever bothered Kogoro, he wouldn't tell him anyway, he finished the rest of his breakfast and got his backpack together. Ran was already in her room, picking up her things and she had insisted (really forcefully) that she'd walk him to the spot where he normally met up with the rest of the Shounen Tantei, to make sure he wouldn't be alone on the way.

_Safety precaution, I guess..._

But then again, with the fact that there was a child killer on the loose, always aiming for kids his age, that safety precaution was not that far fetched after all. And, as the young woman had told him (also quite forcefully), he had a habit of crossing paths with bad guys. Which was true, he stumbled upon murder victims on an average basis of one murder per week and it had been suspiciously quiet before this whole mess started. Chances were that they'd become entangled in the case and Ran worried he might be in trouble in that case. He did have a penchant for attracting crooks.

Still thinking about that, he followed Ran's shout to the door, again amping up the kiddie-act (and hating every minute of it) and was in the process of putting on his sneakers when Kogoro's voice stopped him. Turning around he saw the old man standing in the hallway not five feet away, his arms folded across his chest and his expression amazingly well guarded. But that spark of concern was there again, and it was again directed at Conan.

"Listen, brat! I want you to make sure your friends go nowhere alone. Stick together, there's a childkiller on the loose and I want you all to be careful! You got that?" he growled, narrowing his eyes for a moment at the shrunken detective to get his message across.

"O-okay." Conan managed to answer, before Ran pulled him out of the door.

But while he was walking down the steps, Conan could feel Kogoro's eyes on his back. The old man was actually concerned.

_Slowly this is getting weird, he's never concerned about me... _

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__Like, don't like, hate completely? Feel free to leave a review on the first chapter to let me know what you think of this. Second chapter will be online sometime during the next week, I have to look it over first^^ 

So stay tuned!


	2. Chapter 2

Well, folks, here it is! The awaited 2nd chapter! I apologize in advance for the shortness of it, but it simply felt right to end the chapter there. In contrast, the next chappie will be a lot longer, so don't worry. 

As always, be kind in your reviews and I thank everyone who reviewed so far! Also, spelling errors may be kept for personal entertainment!

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**Friday, 27th August 2011**

Afternoon

School had been a dreadful bore, but that had been expected. After all, Conan had passed Elementary School ten years ago and since he was really intelligent it hadn't even been hard then. Now it was just mind-numbing. Having to act almost all day like a seven-year-old, it wore him out. Sometimes it was easier, but today had been tiring. Half his mind had been puzzling over those murders and the culprit behind them, while the other half concentrated on acting like a kid. By the time the bell finally rung, something had to give, since he was getting a headache. Choosing that; since school was now over, he needn't be putting up the kiddie-act so heavily anymore, he opted for further thinking about the case. Frowning he walked with the rest of the Shounen Tantei (barring Haibara, who was out with a bad cold) towards the school gate, his mind turning over the names of the victims, the facts concerning their deaths and everything else.

That was, until he realized that the chatter that usually was around him from the three kids had ceased and they now walked silently next to him. Shaking his head to temporarily banish the thoughts about the case, he looked up, only to be met with three sets of identical expressions. Thoughtfulness had engulfed his friends as they walked slowly along, but only Mitsuhiko looked straight at him.

"Say, Conan-kun, you're thinking about something, aren't you?" the thin boy asked though his expression alone stated that he already knew that fact. Mitsuhiko was merely too polite and tactful to barge into his thoughts and usually refrained from doing so. Of all the Shounen Tantei, Mitsuhiko was obviously the one who had the most knowledge crammed into his brain. Whether that knowledge was useful or not was left up to debate, but it was easier to talk to the freckled kid.

"Kind of. I read about a murder in the paper this morning." Conan affirmed, glad for the chance to waffle about the case, without anyone to stop him.

"I read about it too, you mean Hanako-chan, don't you?" Ayumi asked from his left side, her face creased with sadness. That was unusual. Sure, they were always sad when someone died, but not to this extend. Lightning-quick his brain made the connection between those two things; Hanako's murder and Ayumi's sad face.

"You knew her, didn't you?" he asked gently.

"Yes, my mother knows her mother. I met her a couple of times. She was a very nice girl." the young female answered sadly, her gaze dropping to the ground as she stopped walking, while the boys looked at her.

"I didn't know you knew her. Sorry, Ayumi-chan." Genta said, and in a show of uncharacteristic concern put his huge hand on Ayumi's small shoulder. In response the little girl smiled a bit sadly up at their big friend and shook her head.

"Thanks, Genta-kun. But I have really only met her sometimes. Not very often."

"What was she like?" Conan asked quietly, not wanting to upset the girl (partly because then he'd be pounded by Genta and Mitsuhiko together), but also wanting to gather more data, now that he knew one of his friends had actually known one of the victims.

"I don't know her that well, but she seemed like a nice girl. She liked dogs, the park, Kamen Yaiba. She was always very polite and did what her mother told her. When she was at our place, she was always careful with my toys, she said she didn't want to break something. And when her mother called that it was time to go home, she always went at once. My mother said that she was a good girl, since she always did what she was told." Ayumi answered, her small hand cupping her chin, pretty much the same way Conan did all the time.

_Seems like they're copying me, hm? _

"But then, why did the killer take her? Since everyone knew there was a bad person around, her mother wouldn't have allowed her to go outside by herself, right?" Genta asked, voicing the exact same thing that had been going through Conan's mind. Funny, how they seemed to catch on to the suggestive points of a case so easily. On the other hand, perhaps it was simply concern for their female friend that made them more eager to investigate. That had them excerting all the brainpower they sported. And though he was far more intelligent (simply because he WAS actually ten years older than them), those kids were smart in their own right. Though Genta usually didn't contribute anything useful, but when he did, it was all the more impressive.

"Ayumi-chan, Hanako-chan wouldn't have gone with a stranger, would she?" Mitsuhiko asked their female friend, who immediately shook her head.

"No way! Hanako-chan knew that one shouldn't go with strangers, her mother had told her often! Besides, my mother told my father that Hanako-chan disappeared in the park, where she was with her parents. She wasn't alone."

"Since she wouldn't have gone willingly, its safe to assume she was kidnapped while her parents were looking somewhere else. But it still would have been a risky thing, I mean, it was possible that someone would see the guy who took Hanako. And why go to the trouble of kidnapping Hanako when she was obviously close to her parents?" Conan wondered. Something in this case was odd.

People who abducted children normally waited until the kids were alone or unsupervised when they took them. But this guy had purposely taken Hanako even though there were probably easier targets around. So why had he gone after Hanako? Since the girl knew that she shouldn't go with strangers and was known to never disobey her parents, wouldn't she have stuck close to them, if she were told to?

"The question is, how did the culprit get Hanako away and why did he choose on her in the first place?" He continued on, head firmly locked in the mystery presented to him. He could feel the welcome grinding of his mental processes, each thing he had learned so far about this killing spree was stored in his mind and he tried to connect everything together. Sadly, even though he had been given an interesting fact, he had no idea how this one connected with the other facts about the case. He simply didn't have enough to reason accurately.

"In any case, has Mouri-san any opinion on this?" Mitsuhiko pulled him out of his thoughts again, which; considering he had no data, was probably a good thing. Holmes himself had said so: _Theorizing without data is like racing an engine; it racks itself to pieces._

"No, not as far as I know. He hasn't told me anything yet and I was 'conveniently' absent when he talked with Megure-keibu. I snuck in, and got a little bit of information, but he hasn't put up any theory yet." he answered absently, remembering the fact that 'conveniently absent' meant he had been thrown out of the room. Literally. In such cases being small was simply annoying. Surely no one could have removed him from the talk if he had been in his own body, not trapped as a pint-sized imitation of himself.

_Hindsight is twenty-twenty, Kudo... _

Conan made a conscious effort to not think about his current predicament, since it would only cause him to brood and be miserable the rest of the day. It always happened when he thought of his situation, therefore he had learned to head around that particular cliff, in a manner of speaking.

_Think about the case, Kudo... Its more important now..._

True that. It was imperative to figure out how this killer chose on his victims, perhaps then they could prevent other potential kidnappings. Frowning Conan reached for his notebook, absently noting how his friends closed in around him to take a peek at the clues he had gotten so far. Not that it really was that much.

"I still have to get all the names together and important details that weren't discussed while I listened in. I guess Oji-san has them in his desk somewhere or maybe Megue-keibu left a file or something. All I have so far is what I read in the newspaper this morning and some small details about the other cases." he told them, briefly looking up to be met with the now familiar frowns of thought on their young faces.

"Right now there isn't that much to go on. Perhaps tomorrow I'll be able to get somewhere, but for now I barely got anything." Conan continued, very irked about the fact he barely had any data to operate with.

"Well, in that case, perhaps we should be talking about this tomorrow then? Perhaps then we'd be able to find something out." Mitsuhiko stated, his eyes practically gleaming with the prospect of a new case. However, that had Conan's protective urges kick into life quite forcefully. He remembered that speck of concern he had spotted that morning in Kogoro's gaze. At the same time he knew that he couldn't leave his friends out of the loop, however much he wanted just that. But if he told them to keep out of it, they would only start to investigate on their own and that could lead to disaster, as it so often had in the past. He needed to keep an eye on them, that was the only way to make sure that at least these three kids were protected in some way.

"The most important thing is that none of us go anywhere alone. This guy picks children off the streets and a couple of days later there's only a body to be discovered. Oji-san is worried and told me to give you the message to stick together. I suppose I'll be able to get some info on the case, but I have to be careful. If Oji-san or Ran-neechan find out, I'll get the mother of all noogies from Oji-san. So you have to promise me that you'll stick together or at least don't go anywhere on your own, okay?"

He gave all of them the sternest of gazes, knowing the effect it had. And it worked again, all of them looked straight back and nodded. At least now they were warned, since he couldn't really remove them from the investigation now unless he really wanted to invite trouble. He knew that if something happened to those kids, he'd never be able to forgive himself. Therefore he had to keep a sharp eye out for those kids. They decided to meet the following day (since it was Saturday after all and they normally hung out on the weekends, so no suspicions there) when he had gathered some real information, before Ran showed up to take him home. Genta, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko promised to stick together for the rest of the day and so they parted ways.

However, there was a nagging feeling turning Conan's stomach, as if he was overlooking something vital or was close to finding some really important clue.

_I hope its the latter..._

* * *

To all those who will be angry at me because I have put Haibara down with a cold, I will say this: Its not of a personal dislike to her charcater that I haven't put her in this fiction, but a very simple writing issue. I simply cannot put her character to paper convincingly. And believe me, I have tried!

Well, now that thats done with, stay tuned for the next chapter. I'll probably upload it next weekend, I still have to proof-read it and iron out a few kinks with it^^

Enjoy!_  
_


	3. Chapter 3

Well, here it is! Finally the third chapter! I apologize for the delay, but my muse has been somewhat incooperative this past two weeks and reality decided to check on me and keep me from this fiction. I suspect the updates will be a little bit irregular from now on, as I have encountered a few plotknots in the next chapter I had planned which will need detangling before I can type it all down. 

Anyway, I apologize for the wait and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Its longer than the one before, just as I have promised^^ 

Enjoy!

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**Saturday, 28th August 2011**

Morning

Gathering information was surprisingly easy, considering all the back-up plans Conan had thought of. But he just had to wait until Kogoro was drunk and fell asleep in his bed, then had to wait until Ran fell asleep also and then he only had to sneak down into the office and find information. Considering that it was in a brown folder in the topmost drawer of Kogoro's desk (which wasn't even locked) it was the proverbial child's play.

Now he had names, ages, genders, adresses and even an account of the coroner's report in his notebook. When the others showed up to pick him up, his mind was clamped firmly around the case and anything to do with it.

As he walked with them, carefully looking around until they were out of sight of the agency's windows, he realized Mitsuhiko carrying a small scrapbook with him, looking extremely solemn. The faces of his other two friends were not far behind. He waited until they had seated themselves in some small diner a bit away from the agency before asking the obvious.

"What are you all so gloomy about? And what's with the book?"

Immediately Mitsuhiko gave the scrapbook over to him while the waiter took their orders. Frowning Conan opened the book to find a gathering of newspaper articles, all carefully copied and pasted inside the books, complete with accounts of the dates and even the papers they had been printed in. Everything the public knew about the childkiller so far.

"We went to the library yesterday afternoon and gathered this. It only sprang to mind as we passed the building on our way to my place, or we would have told you of our intentions. Anyway, we looked through every paper since this thing started and copied everything they had. Perhaps it helps, perhaps it doesn't, we do not know that, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. However, reading through all these articles on those children naturally put a bit of a damper on good spirits." Mitsuhiko told him and Conan saw approving nods all around the table.

After all, he could understand that. His night had been far from pleasant either, after all the coroner's reports, which were a lot more detailed than what the paper stated. And the reports contained lots of high-definition photos, at least these kids were spared from that. Reading about it was something else than seeing the effects. He had spent most of the night mulling over the facts until his exhausted mind had given up the battle and sent him into a fitful sleep. And considering that he had read a lot of coroner's reports in his time and saw a lot of murder victims, that was saying something. At least the papers only knew a select few details the police had told them.

But the idea had been good, he admitted freely. And the fact that his friends had thought of that approach all by themselves even made him proud of them. Though it technically was his fault they were involved in crimes (simply because they hung around him all the time, the bug was bound to spread), they were turning into really capable detectives.

"This is pretty good, you guys. There are some things the papers have not been told, but I got that covered." he said, closing the scrapbook again and slid it back towards Mitsuhiko. Throwing a glance around, he saw their faces literally lite up like the proverbial christmas tree at his simple praise.

"So you were able to get some more data?" Ayumi asked eagerly, her concentration now fully on him. Even Genta looked up from the food menu to give him his most interested look. And that was saying something, Genta usually put food before everything else.

"Yes, I have. I had to sneak into the office to get it, but I found a file on the case, probably something Megure-keibu brought over." Conan reached into his pocket to get the notebook.

"I've got names, ages, genders, adresses, and on a grimmer note details on how exactly they were all killed. Unfortunately the forensics haven't got that much to work with, since there was barely any evidence left behind."

"But doesn't that mean that the killer knows what the police would be looking for?" Mitsuhiko asked, absently twisting a pen in his left hand while the right cupped his chin.

"It would, but everyone could know that. It just shows that this guy is extremely careful not to leave evidence behind. But with all the crime shows on TV, everyone in the streets knows how to avoid evidence." Conan answered, feeling his face darken. It was true, there was a possibility that went unspoken between him and Mitsuhiko, that the killer was somehow involved with the police. However it was true that general knowledge on what the police looked for was a fact known by lots of people. Even the most idiotic gangster knew how to avoid fingerprints. This guy was also very careful about fibers, hair, DNA and everything else. Simply proving how smart he was, at least in that regard.

"So what were you able to find, that does not already correspond with the things we managed to glean from the newspaper articles?" Mitsuhiko continued, now looking at him directly, even though he still twisted the pen. Obviously it was something new in his lean friend, he wasn't given to nervous agitation, Mitsuhiko was more the type to sit and think quietly. Choosing to ignore the new tendency in the thin boy across the table, Conan looked over his notes again. There was no need to tell them every little detail, especially about the method of murder. It was enough that his brain had focussed on those gruesome pictures he had seen in the coroner's report, there was no need whatsoever to trouble his young friends. But there were some things he could tell them. Usually when he was able to ramble about a case together with them, it was something seemingly insignificant they said or did which ultimately led him onto the right track. Chances were that it would work now also.

"Well, the most pressing thing is that the papers weren't told the full extend of the killing spree so far. They issued five victims, but really there are eight." he told his friends grimly, watching their faces darken with worry and underneath that lurked fury.

The fact that eight children had lost their lives without any form of suspect surfacing, angered him also. Usually killers would be too cocky after such an amount of murders, often leaving evidence behind in the irrational belief that they wouldn't get caught. But this guy worked the other way around, the more he killed, the more he was able to vanish inbetween society, there was nothing to distinguish him from the rest of the people crowding Tokyo. And that was immensly irritating.

"Eight kids..." Ayumi said, growing very quiet and suddenly looking very sad again. In all probability she was thinking about the latest victim, Hanako-chan. As far as Conan knew the only victim that any of his friends knew personally.

"Why was it the police didn't tell the papers? Wouldn't it have been better to inform the public about it?" Genta asked, his huge brows forming a stormy line above his eyes. Before Conan could answer however, Mitsuhiko beat him to it.

"The police probably felt that they would be able to find the killer quickly, and felt therefore no need to inform the press thoroughly. When there were more children being murdered however, they probably couldn't keep it under wraps and issued information on the cases, but neglected to tell the public they had three more murders at hand." he calmly informed their bulky friend.

"But I still don't get it." Genta argued, his gaze now alternating between Mitsuhiko and Conan himself and the shrunken sleuth decided to come to the aid of his smart friend.

"Moreover, if the press knew they were withholding information, it would mean bad publicity to the Tokyo police. I know it sounds bad to say it that way, but that was probably another reason they didn't tell the press the whole truth. But the foremost reason I think was to avoid a panic. If the broad public knew there are in reality eight victims, this city would be in a state of utter panic by now. The police has to be careful what to tell the press because they also don't want too much information to leak out. After all, its very reasonable to suggest the killer reads about his killings." he explained absently, seeing Genta nod solemnly after a moments thought.

It continued to surprise him, how very much focussed those kids were in this case. Undoubtedly it was the most gruesome they had come across so far, and yet they didn't shy back from it. Quite the opposite actually, they seemed even more eager to find the culprit. Despite the danger they put themselves in.

_I gotta keep an eye on those three..._

* * *

**Saturday, 28th August 2011**

Evening

Conan sat brooding in front of the television, not really watching anything, he merely had turned it on to hide the very fact that he was brooding over the case. And over that strange reaction he had received from Kogoro when he had returned home.

He had spent a good deal of the day with the Shounen Tantei, during which they had sat in that diner, sharing all the information and discussing every aspect of every potential evidence left behind. And though he had tried his hardest to conceal the full truth about the precise way of how those kids were killed, it was impossible to conceal everything. Especially since the newspapers had issued a rather detailed account on the victim before Higuya Hanako. A young boy by the name of Tozawa Minoru, age eight, found underneath a bridge in Shibuya. One of the papers had issued a two-site piece, detailing what injuries the child had sported and how he was discovered. So, despite the fact that Conan hadn't told them everything from the examiners report, they had known (or at least were able to picture) how the others had looked. Naturally the mood around the table had been quite grim.

And despite the fact they had discussed the case thoroughly for most of the afternoon, Conan hadn't made any form of progress in his reasonings. As the day wore on, they had given up, knowing it was impossible to make any form of headway without proper evidence.

Together they had walked as far as the Detective office, where he had split up from his friends and had went inside. Not after having them promise they would stick together at all costs, however. Only after he had done that, it felt better to leave them to their own devices, especially since they had told him they would spend the rest of the day at Genta's house, where their parents would pick them up later. So those kids were out of trouble for the day at least.

However, when Conan had walked up the stairs into the office, he had barely registered that Megure-keibu was present (together with both Shiratori-keiji and Satou-keiji), before Kogoro had cornered him. He had tried to ask a question regarding the case, but Kogoro had simply grabbed him by the cuff of his shirt and had removed him from the office. And then, just before the older detective had closed the door on him, that same concern had flitted over Kogoro's face. The same concern he had shown the day before, that silent demand to Conan to keep out of this case.

Conan huffed angered. As if that was possible for him. Eight murders in Tokyo, right under his nose, with the culprit still at large, that was not something he could keep out of. And yet the old man tried to exclude him with all he had. It was annoying. And slightly disturbing. He'd seen countless bodies, had faced more murderers than he could count without the old man doing so much as batting an eye and now he was being left out?

Sighing again over how unfair the whole thing was, he glanced at the TV-screen, absentmindedly watching the documentary that had been on for nearly an hour already. He was already bored out of his head and without anymore concrete data he couldn't put any theories together. And he couldn't get more data without him being present while they all discussed the case. Which, apparently was the very thing Kogoro seeked to avoid. So, in the end, there was only one thing he could do and that was seeth in silence and wait for an opportunity to gather some details. Until then, all he could do was ponder over the facts he had so far, hoping that something triggered his brain to figure this out.

However, his musings were interrupted by his cellphone ringing. Upon looking at the display and finding it to flash a very familiar number at him, he felt almost glad that no one else was in the same room. He finally had someone who shared almost the same brainpower to rant to and if Ran or Kogoro were to find out, maybe they'd even take the phone away. Who really knew how they would react in that weird concern they displayed. So, feeling bizzarly glad for the solitude he was presented with, he answered his call, only to be greeted by an also quite familiar Osakan drawl.

"Hiya Kudo. How you doin'?" Hattori Heiji's voice greeted him. Conan knew better than to trust that obviously fake cheery voice of his friend. He may have been shrunk, but he was still as sharp as ever and Hattori never called just because he felt like it. Chances were, he knew what was happening in Tokyo.

"Well enough. Why are you calling Hattori?" he asked back, making sure his friend caught on to the wary tone he used.

"Oy, can't I call without trouble lurking somewhere? What if I just called 'cause I felt like it?"

_Never happened before... _

Conan stayed silent, simply waiting for his friend to admit his reason. It took less than he had anticipated, because not even a minute passed before he heard a heavy sigh at the other end of the line.

"Alright, I give. You're right, Kudo." the Kansai detective said, obviously upset that his shrunken counterpart could not be fooled.

"I take it you read the paper then?" Conan asked, his hand reaching for his notebook to look over the meagre data again. Not that he had to, he probably had it already memorized, considering how often he head read through it, but he needed to do something.

"Yeah, I read it. So you're involved in that case now?" Automatically Hattori knew which case he was interested in; after all, there was only one murder of any interest in Tokyo at the moment.

_If only..._

"Not really. The old man is." he answered, already knowing what the next thing would be his friend would say.

"Which basically means, yea, you're involved. So, whaddaya got?" Hattori asked, his accent slurring his words for a moment. Everytime that happened, Conan took a nanosecond to get used to it. It was all to easy to forget about that terrible Osakan drawl of his.

"Not that much. And no, that just means that Mouri is involved. I got removed when Megure-keibu came over." he explained, already dreading the round of teasing that was sure to follow. And Hattori would tease him, just for the fun of it.

"Removed? What does that mean?" came the slightly confused query, simply because his friend knew that he was able to sneak into pretty much any crime scene if he really wanted. He had done so numerous times already.

"Just what I said. I got removed. For some odd reason the old man doesn't want me involved. The reason still eludes me somehow, but still. I have managed to get some data however and I..."

"Wait, wait, wait! You mean literally? They removed you? As in, picking up and setting down somewhere else?"

_Oh great, now he's grinning, I just know it..._

"I wouldn't really say it that way." Conan answered meekly, knowing fully well that he hadn't actually denied the sequence of events. Which hadn't gone unnoticed by his friend either.

"Oh dude, he really did that? Man, I wish I could've seen that! Kudo being removed from a discussion. Really, I'd pay to see that!" Hattori broke off snickering.

Feeling his eyebrow twitch in agitation, Conan took a deep breath. No matter how much it irked him, he was used to the snide comments from the Osakan by now. After all, that was what Hattori did. He was still searching for a way to get retribution, but at the moment he couldn't think of any. So he ignored the impulse to snap at his friend and simply let him snicker for a moment more.

"Hattori, do you mind? I got a child killer on the loose here." he stated gruffly, silently hoping that the giddy mood of his counterpart would vanish soon. It was hardly befitting the situation. And it really worked, Hattori grew quiet almost immediately, having heard the edge Conan had put into his voice.

"What's wrong? There's more to this, isn't there?"

"Yeah. For starters, Ayumi knew the latest victim and her kidnapping doesn't make any form of sense. And for the other, its not five victims, but eight in total." he answered and heard Hattori draw a surprised breath.

"I see, the police didn't give the official confirmation that the other three were killed by the same culprit."

"Exactly. The press hasn't caught on, because those three were the first ones to be killed and though it was the same method, it wasn't exactly the same in execution." Conan explained, his mind whirring with the details again, but coming up with nothing.

"What does that mean?" Hattori asked.

"Well, the cause of death is always asphyxiation after severe physical trauma. But the first three victims, when they were taken, must have gone willingly. The other five had traces of chloroform in their systems. The medical examiner proved that. Also, the first three bodies were slightly hidden, so they weren't immediately discovered. One of them, a girl named Tanaki Honami was found five days after she had been killed. The rest of them were pretty easy to discover, being left at places people would naturally see something out of place. So its slightly different, but the whole thing points to the same culprit." he answered, shoving the mental images in his brain further away. Those high definition photos really were gruesome, picturing the full extend of what had been done to those kids and thinking of them made him uneasy for some reason that still eluded him. But he couldn't think of that now, not when he finally had a chance to talk to someone that might actually listen to him.

"So the culprit is setting them down in different places, but easy enough to have them discovered quickly. What does that suggest?"

"Probably only that he feels safe enough now. He got away with murdering the first three kids after all, its only natural to assume he gets bolder, the longer this continues. So far the victims were left in places they would be discovered sooner or later, but lately he sets them down with the intention of them being discovered. Construction sites, bridges, parks, all places where someone else can discover them relatively easy. Its almost as if this guy wants them to be found quickly, just to annoy the police." Conan went on, growing oblivious to the questions of his Kansai friend, while his mind tried to integrate this idea with the rest of the data.

"Who knows, maybe he is."

"The real problem here is that there is almost no evidence at all. He just leaves nothing behind, this guy is like a ghost. That makes it so hard to figure out a possible suspect." Conan went on, for the moment oblivious to the comment, but aware enough to recognize that it was the truth. The killer most likely taunted the police by placing the bodies in a way that they would be easily discovered.

"Anyway, looks like I have to expand my knowledge on serial killers and the kind in the coming days. The old man may not be happy with my involvement, but I can't let a childkiller run free."

_Not for long anyway... _

Suddenly thoughts of his childfriends crossed his mind, with a killer like that on the loose, they were in danger also. More than he was, after all he had his instincts to rely on, they would at least tell him when he was being watched, but they were just normal kids. If the killer got it into his head to take one of his friends...

Conan shuddered to think of that alternative. He had to find this guy, preferably before another child became his victim.

Presently he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and a quick look at the clock told him that it should be Ran coming home from her afternoon with Sonoko.

"Hattori, I gotta go. Talk to you later." he told his Osakan friend hurriedly and hung up on him. Switching the phone to silent mode, he turned back to the television screen, trying to look for all the world like a normal seven year old watching TV. Even if it was a documentary he watched. Deliberately pushing the thoughts on the case a bit further away in his mind, far enough that he would be able to concentrate on behaving like a child. He knew the thoughts would return soon enough, but until then he had to keep up the pretense a bit longer.

However, hearing Ran call from the door, he couldn't repress the slight sigh. It was time to play the kid again.

* * *

Okay, I know, not much happening in this chapter either, but I don't need to delve into the action too quickly anyway. But I had a chance to put Hattori into this and I seized it^^ In fact I had already planned for him to make an appearance, as I simply love it when those two talk. It just seems as if they never pass an opportunity to annoy the other. 

As always, reviews are very much appreciated and I'm gad to get them^^ 


	4. Chapter 4

Before you murder me (and I wouldn't recommend that, because then you'd never know the end of the story^^): I'm sorry this chapter took so long to finish, but I wasn't sure if it would work, so I had to go ahead and write some more for the next chappie. Then my Beta was busy and couldn't check it (she still is, by the way) for any inconsistencies I had planned later in the story. Add that to a bad case of Writers Block and you get some large gap between installments. 

By the way, I'm still not sure about this, but I have decided I would speed up the time table a bit. Simply because I can and that way it gets a better flow. 

Anyways, I hope you enjoy and will stay tuned for the next chappie. Currently the writing is flowing at a relatively steady pace, so I think it won't be as long until the next chapter is online.

* * *

**Sunday, 29th August 2011**

There he was. Innocent and unknowing. They all were, if he really thought about it. They were all so naive, so oblivious to the world around them. So unknowing of the danger that hid all around, crouched in bushes, stood in the shadow of tall buildings. He watched as the boy walked with his friends, exitedly talking about that TV-show that was so popular among kids now. Kamen Yaiba.

He couldn't hide the grin anymore. It was a vital piece of information he had gathered while watching the boy. This child was obsessed with the character of Kamen Yaiba and therefore the trap was set perfectly.

Seeing them pass him by, his grin grew broader. They didn't even know that he was standing right there, no one knew who he really was. Delightedly he thought about the warning posters all over Tokyo, reminding parents and children alike that he was out there. The papers nearly were beside themselves, nourishing the growing unease among the broad public with their demands for the police to stop him.

Not that those bumbling fools would be able to stop him, he was much too smart for that. Too smart for them. They searched for him, oh yes, they did, checked playgrounds and parks, everywhere a child had dissappeared from. But that had been expected. And after all, they could not possibly know which child he intended to take to the Dreamland next. They could not hide all of them, and the parents could only tell their children to be careful.

But that plea was useless in itself. Children were by nature naive and trusting. The first three had even walked with him, had followed him as he told them of the Dreamland. They had been easy to find. But he couldn't take that gamble anymore, he had to make sure they came with him.

And so he followed the boy and his friends, his hand cradling the trap he carried with him to be set at a later moment. Walked past newspaper stands screaming out in bold lettering in his glory, asking who he was. At a later point they might be told, but for now, they were oblivious. But the moment would come when the police could no longer conceal his true achievement and then he would finally be permitted to enjoy the wave of true panic that had begun choking this city.

* * *

**Monday, 30th August 2011**

**Afternoon**

Sunday had passed by nearly unheeded, nothing of great importance had happened in the Mouri household. Conan had successfully thwarted any suspicion towards him and had even managed to glean some things about the Inspectors visit. It was just so easy to drill Kogoro when he sat at his breakfast or drunk in front of the TV. Though the latter hadn't happened Saturday, strangely enough. He had drunken one beer in the evening and considering his standards at making alcohol dissappear, that was hardly worth mentioning. Therefore Conan had asked in the morning, really early, making sure the older detective's mind was still sleep-fogged.

It was as he had suspected, the killer had left no concrete evidence behind. A few bruises on Hanako's body could be measured and they surmised that it had been a booted male foot that had caused them. Also, judging from the degree of violence involved, they had ruled out any female suspects. In a way, Conan had to agree. After all, he'd seen the photos and doubted that a woman could wreak that much damage. It took considerable strength to break bones if no weapons were involved and doing that over a prolonged period of time simply pointed to a man. Forensics still combed through the crime-scene (which meant merely the spot the body had been located in), but for the most part came up empty handed. However, as he had managed to take a peek into the office, when Kogoro wasn't looking, he now knew that this killer toyed with his victims for a rough estimate of three days before he killed them. Another little fact to consider.

So, during the Sunday, he had not been given an opportunity to glean anything more, as Ran had decided to spend the day with him. Normally he would have been delighted to have a whole day with Ran lounged somewhere, lazily whiling the day away, but in this case he had been annoyed. Simply because he knew what she had intended. She simply wanted to keep him as far away from any form of investigating as possible and he'd seen through that trick the moment she had asked him whether he would like to spend the day with her. Though 'asked' wasn't the right word per sé, she had simply decided for him and had twisted his words around until he had to agree with her or brave her wrath. Therefore he had merely called his friends to figure out where they were and what they were up to, but had been calmed to be told they would stay at Genta's house to play with his new videogame.

Sometime during the Sunday afternoon he had received a call from Agasa, telling him that Haibara would be out for a couple of days yet, simply because her cold had worsened and his house was now officially under a state of quarantine at the insistence of the shrunken scientist. So he couldn't even go to Agasa's house, seeing as Haibara's cold was contagious, because the last thing he needed right now would be a case of the sniffles. In the end, he had resigned himself to his fate and had taken to think the facts through while simultaneously putting up the kiddie-act for Ran's benefit.

And now a new week had started, with him again trying to concentrate on school, but finding it increasingly difficult. He very nearly counted the minutes until the bell would ring. Just before they had been allowed to leave the classroom however, Kobayashi-sensei had reminded them to be careful and not go with any strangers. Which had resulted in several looks being thrown back and forth between him and his friends. Now he walked with them down the street, intending to get to some place where they could discuss the case again. Not that it would make any headway, but perhaps something would spring to mind if they chewed down the data again.

"Strange, isn't it? Even Kobayashi-sensei is worried. And did you see how she was looking at us? Really weird, if you ask me." Genta said from his spot behind everyone.

"Yes, it was indeed strange that she was looking at us while she said it. Do you believe she knows that we are investigating this case at the moment?" Mitsuhiko asked, while throwing a questioning glance towards Conan. A weak smile played around the shrunken sleuth's lips.

"I wouldn't put it past her. After all, she knows us. It's natural to assume that we'd be taking an interest in the case." he answered somewhat absently, his mind still grinding against the facts and slowly overheating because he could find no common thread that bound all of those kids together.

"Any news from the police yet? Have they found something?" Ayumi asked from his right side and Conan trew her a quick glance. The girl was worried, and in truth, so was he. It was only a matter of time until the next child would vanish, only a matter of time before the murderer struck again.

Presently he remembered the questions and pulled himself out of his concerned gloom. He had to remain thinking, that was the only way to help.

"Well, no, not really. I heard that Megure-keibu is annoyed also. Forensics found nothing besides some greyish fibers that are not really distinctive. They think the fibers came from the culprit's car, but without something to compare them to, they're useless for now. Police thinks we're dealing with a man, judging by the force involved and I have to agree. It's unlikely that a woman can show so much strength over a longer period of time. But other than that, there's not that much to work with. We can't even narrow the potential future targets for the killer down because we don't know how he finds them. It's no wonder the police is annoyed." Conan explained while walking with his friends. They understood that evidence was critical, without it there was virtually no case. They needed evidence if they ever wanted to catch the criminal and the lack thereof was disturbing in its own right. For a while they walked in silence, just the four of them, Conan in front with Ayumi next to him, Mitsuhiko slightly behind him on the left and Genta in the rear, each wrapped around their own thoughts.

Conan was puzzled by the case so far. Without any solid evidence he could not deduce that much and he hated it. He had spent hours thinking about it and it had availed him not in the slightest bit. He simply couldn't figure this out and it annoyed him immensly. And the fact that both Ran and Kogoro seemed to be aware of his thoughts set him on edge also. After all, Ran had basically kept him close to her for an entire day, and she was far from stupid. She knew, or somehow sensed that he thought about the case.

His thoughts however screeched to a halt as they passed a shopping window filled with TV's, constantly broadcasting the news. Not such an uncommon thing to see in the anthill that was Tokyo, it was the words spoken on screen that drew his entire attention and caused him to stop walking, his friends beside him.

"...no trace of the boy could be located. And for all of you who have just tuned in, we have received information that 8-year old Enode Katsuro has dissappeared. The boy was reported missing yesterday and police have now confirmed his dissappearance. The police will soon give a press conference regarding their efforts." the anchorwoman announced, causing Conan's thoughts to whirl, while his stomach twisted in a tight knot. Another child missing.

"Holy..." Genta breathed from somewhere behind him, his eyes fixed on the screen as if he could change the words if he only stared long enough.

"Do you think it could be the same culprit?" Ayumi asked, her eyes already tearing up slightly as she turned away from the screen to cast her gaze towards the shrunken teen. And though he hated it with every fibre of his being, he couldn't lie to his friends.

"Its more than likely. Dammit, without evidence we can't even figure out where he has taken the kid!" Anger boiled within him and he found it hard to contain it. He hated feeling powerless, hated it with everything he was, but the way things were at the moment, he couldn't help this kid. He had been inactive for too long, he needed to do something. Anything.

Still standing and absently looking at the screen currently displaying fottage of the parents of young Katsuro weeping and pleading for their child to be returned safely, Conan resolved that he'd go have a look at the latest crime scene. Which meant the place where Higuya Hanako was found. Unfortunately, that presented him with a new problem. He couldn't tell the kids what he was up to, they would probably follow him. And if there was one thing he was sure about, it was the fact that they didn't need to see the place where this young girl had been virtually dumped. Least of all Ayumi. He could tune his emotions down, he had learned to do so years ago, had learned to keep a logical way of thinking even when faced with the most horrific of crime scenes or murder victims; but these kids; they hadn't gained that ability. They would be disturbed by the sight of the crime scene, whether there was evidence or not. But they did know about the manner in which those children were found and would be able to picture it. And part of his disappearing was often to keep them away from something like that. He really didn't want to disturb his friends. Also, it was much harder to sneak into a crime scene, the more people were involved. One kid could be overlooked, but four of them... So he had to get away from them.

But to do that, he had to think of an excuse to get away from them, something that allowed him to part ways with them for the day and then go and see the crime scene for himself. And with his finely tuned instincts he wasn't in that much danger when he went about alone. After all, he would notice if someone watched him, he always did. But first of all he had to get away from the others. Choosing upon the first thing that sprang to mind, he amped up the kiddie-act again, actually succeeding in surprising all three kids present to his left and right side.

"Oh no! I totally forgot! I have to study for the math exam we're supposed to have next week! I'm sorry, you guys, but I gotta go! See ya!" he shouted out and took off before they could even blink.

_I hope they'll buy that... At least for a while... _

Conan heard them shout that he should be careful on his way home, and absently waved back, already choosing the fastest way to the agency, so that he could get rid of his backpack and get his skateboard. Hanako was found some way off and in that case he needed his skateboard as it was too far for him to walk there.

All in all, it took him little more than fifteen minutes to arrive at the agency, sometimes throwing glances over his shoulder to make sure no one saw him coming or going. With all the people around, he really didn't want anyone to notice he went out alone. In that weird show of unneccessary concern displayed by the other two residents of the house he'd receive one hell of a dressing-down if they heard of it. In fact, if he was in luck, Ran would be out still and Kogoro too preoccupied to notice him leaving the house alone. If his calculations were correct (and they usually were) the old man's favourite drama was due to air in less than five minutes and Kogoro never missed an opportunity to watch it. And if he wasn't home by any chance, he set the VCR to tape the thing. Either suited the shrunken sleuth in his plans.

Carefully Conan peeked inside the hallway, to find that there was no trace from either Ran or Kogoro. Their slippers were still neatly arranged and their shoes gone. Meaning that no one was home for the moment. Which meant in turn that he could sneak off and think of an excuse later. He was sure, he'd think of something, but for now his mind whirred with the murder and everything to do with it, he couldn't possibly think of an adequate excuse right now, that would have to wait until he returned.

Quickly stowing his schoolbag away he grabbed the skateboard and was out the door again in under three minutes. All in all it had been less than twenty minutes since he had parted ways with the Detective Boys, who were hopefully on their way home.

If he hurried, he'd be back before dinnertime, in which case his absence could be covered by a little white lie. The library sounded about right.

Yet all his careful planning screeched to a grinding halt as he spotted a person, leaning almost leisurely against the wall at the bottom of the stairs, schoolbag placed on the ground beside him. It would have seemed casual, almost normal, if it hadn't been for the fact that it was one of his friends, glaring icy daggers at him.

_Mitsuhiko... Should have figured it would be him leading the charge..._

"What are you doing here?" Surprise won over courtesy hands down and Conan found himself blurting the question out before he could stop himself.

The lean boy's gaze (still glaring, if less intense) bored into him and Conan realized he was caught. Like a deer in the headlights. He didn't know how he knew, there was simply something in his friends gaze that told of it.

"I could ask precisely the same thing. Right after I asked why you thought it neccessary to lie to us. Again." Mitsuhiko answered almost calmly, but the subliminal message screamed louder than any words. The kid felt like he'd just been betrayed. And he meant to have that message conveyed, so much was absolutely certain. Also the way he stood spoke whole volumes. The thin kid had pushed away from the wall he had been leaning against and had drawn himself up to his full height of three foot five, arms crossed over his chest, shoulders tightened. The kid was more than pissed, that was obvious. And if Conan was honest to himself, it was slightly unsettling to see Mitsuhiko in that frame of mind. The kid was so rarely genuinely pissed it always seemed unreal. Angered, sure; but never truly and absolutely pissed.

_Damn, I thought they bought it..._

Throwing a quick glance around, he tried to see his other friends, but found himself only faced with Mitsuhiko.

"Where are the others?" he asked, for the moment ignoring the fact that he'd been found out by a child. Granted, Mitsuhiko with his brainmatter didn't really count as a child anymore, but still. It was a blow to his pride, being found out by a child of eight.

His friends slightly less aggravated voice pulled him back into reality again.

"Hopefully on their way home by now. I told them I had to give you something, which isn't a lie per sé, but on the way the thought occured to me that you once again may have been aiming to investigate on your own. It appears my assumption was an accurate one after all." the boy explained, looking for all the world as if he was talking about the weather. And that polite way of speaking did the rest, causing the shrunken sleuth to accept that there was no backing out now. Anything he might have thought of to use as an explanation wouldn't work now. Not after the kid had figured out that he had lied to them in the first place.

"What tipped you off then?" Conan asked, wanting to understand just where the error had been. He'd been convinced they had bought it, but somewhere he must have gone wrong, or else Mitsuhiko wouldn't have figured him out.

"In actuality it was the math excuse you gave. True, we have an exam next week, but if there is one thing you do not need, it is to study for math. You do even complicated equations in your head, while the rest of us trail behind all of the time. Also, there was the thing that we know you never back down when a case has you interested, schoolwork or no schoolwork. So I figured I would head you off and come see what your real intention was and why it required to keep us out of it."

Conan had to quell the urge to facepalm. Of course, he had forgotten that he was great at maths. When he had invented the character of Conan, he had changed some things to make it less obvious that he was way smarter than the average schoolkid. However, math had always been his pet subject and he simply couldn't pretend to be bad at it. So he had chosen that Conan would be a little math genius also. His error had simply been that he forgot it.

But the shrunken tantei had to give his friend's surmise credit. He had accurately found the error in his statement and had drawn correct conclusions. And even if it interfered with his initial plan, he couldn't stop himself from feeling proud of the boy. Mitsuhiko was truly a diamond in the rough, if the kid kept that up, he could become a brilliant detective one day.

Sighing Conan hung his head, knowing he had to play with open cards now.

"Okay, I'll admit it. I told a little white lie to have an opportunity to check on something by myself."

"But why? And why was it neccessary to keep the rest of us out of it?" Mitsuhiko asked him confused, clearly lost to such a concept of thought.

Of course, Conan couldn't tell him the root of his reason as to why he always went off by himself, but he could at least explain his actions for the immediate moment, hoping to put the tall boy off the idea to follow him. He was still convinced that it was no good idea to take him along for a peek at the scene.

"I wanted you guys out of it because I didn't think you could handle where I'm about to go today. I wanted to check on the place where Hanako-chan has been found. And I didn't want you all along, because I won't be responsible for Ayumi being upset."

_Badly abbreviated, Kudo..._

So much was certain, but it was at least part of the truth, as he couldn't tell Mitsuhiko that it was his intent to keep the kids away from any form of danger. That would lead to further questions and he had no time for that.

Yet he spotted something in Mitsuhiko's eyes that made him halt. Though there was revulsion at the fact Conan wanted to visit a crime scene (and granted they were used to him creeping around murder victims), there was also determination surfacing. Immediately several alarm bells went off in Conan's head, he knew that kind of look.

"Don't even think about it, I am not taking you with." he stated, fully intending to jump on his skateboard and lose Mitsuhiko in a cloud of dust. However, the determination in his friends gaze suddenly turned to something so out of place with Mitsuhiko, it took him several second to identify. Then it clicked. The expression the lean boy sported was nothing less than pure mischievousness. Along with the smug grin on his face it worked quite the disturbing image. Whatever the kid had thought up, it surely wouldn't be good. At least not for him.

"You don't really have a choice in this matter I would think. Either I come with or I will wait for Ran-oneesan." the grin got broader as Conan felt himself blanch. That was one low blow.

_You deserve that, Kudo..._

"You wouldn't." he dared to contradict, on some small level believing that at least Mitsuhiko would never rat him out on anything. But one look in his face told the truth. He would rat Conan out, unless he took him with. On one side he wanted to protest, deter the kid and try later, but the problem was that time was of vital importance in this case. If he found something that pointed in one way or the other to the killer he might be able to save Katsuro's life.

So whether he liked it or not, if he wanted to make headway, he had to take Mitsuhiko along.

"Thats a nasty thing to do, you know. Ratting someone out. Thought that was beneath you." Conan said, accepting the fact that he now had someone to tag along.

"And it usually is. Desperate times call for desperate measures, that is all." Mitsuhiko replied, relaxing slightly, as the kid understood he'd be permitted to go along.

_Well, at the very least I now have a slightly more believable excuse as to why I was gone..._

* * *

__Like I said, I'm not sure about this chapter and how it fits into the story in general. And the last scene between Conan and Mitsuhiko just sort of happened and it still has me grinning somewhat. Because, seriously, thats the only way to blackmail that chibi. Telling Ran. Admit it, Shinichi, you're terrified of her sometimes...^^ 

Well, review if you like, I would be greatly honored to know what you think of it so far...


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Okay, a few things before I'l let you continue reading... I know it has been a dreadfully long wait for you, but writing is kind of like cooking. If you serve before its done, it will be terrible^^ I had to iron out some kinks with it, because I was heading for a plothole of epic proportions. Besides that, I wasn't sure if this chapter wasn't too OOC (something I usually tend to avoid, but I think its still bearable in this case). But since I have the chibi in a place where he has to stay under the radar pretty heavily, I felt like I could take a bit of liberty. 

And that is really the root of what I meant to say. I am aware that this chapter is somewhat OOC, but like I said before, desperate times call for desperate measures. So, please refrain from writing in your reviews how OOC-ish you think it is, because I am aware of slight OOC-ness. And I personally don't think it's that bad. 

Also, for all of you out there antsy for action, have patience. I again refer to the cooking metaphor... 

Well, now that I got that off my chest, I still hope you can enjoy this chapter somewhat and I promise to curb the trend of going slightly OOC in the next chapters. I just needed it for this one^^ 

Regards, Callie

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**Monday, 30th August 2011**

**Late Afternoon**

All in all, it was not a bad thing to have Mitsuhiko along. Okay, he was moving slower than he had anticipated, but that was simply because Mitsuhiko's size made it impossible for both of them to ride the skateboard since it had been upgraded to go faster; therefore they had to leave the skateboard behind and take the bus. But all things considered they made good time and it was only a little after four when they arrived at their destination.

Shinyuku Park. Not that far from where Hanako had lived, but that really didn't point to that much. Whether the place meant something to the killer or not he hadn't yet figured out, but for the immediate moment it seemed like it was at random.

There was however one big hitch to the whole operation and said hitch was currently standing right in front of the police band that prevented curious passer-bys to take a sneak peek at the crime scene. Said hitch was a policeman, unfortunately one that Conan knew and one that would in all likelihood start the proverbial mills that would take the information to Kogoro and Ran. Sooner or later, depending on how fast this policeman could get the information out that he had been here. And with this guy, it was sooner rather than later, this specific policeman was worse than a bunch of fishwives considering the gossip.

Grumbling he stood a bit away with Mitsuhiko, carefully keeping out of the line of sight of the uniformed person, his mind thinking through several scenarios that could get him past the man. Unfortunately none of them seemed to work out.

"Let me guess. You mean to sneak past this police officer, don't you?" Mitsuhiko asked and threw a quick glance around to ascertain no one else was present.

"Exactly. The problem is just that if he sees us, he'll ask what we want here and since he knows Oji-san, he'll get the gossip around. Meaning that by this time tomorrow I'll have to face Oji-san's or Ran-neechan's wrath on this, as they tried to keep me out of the loop so far. I need to get past him without him noticing." he answered absently, his brain rifling through a couple more scenarios, only to come up with the same solution. They'd be spotted.

Problem was that the man never moved. He stood right behind the barrier and looked around. Erratically no less. If there had been some pattern to the way he looked around he could have used a blind spot or something, but the policeman was too alert for that. He was on the verge of asking Mitsuhio for a decoy of some sort, when the boy himself spoke in a hushed voice.

"How long would you need to sneak past him?" the lean kid asked, his eyes roaming the place around, as if he was up to something again.

"About a minute. Why do you ask?" Conan answered and carefully calculated the way he would need to take to avoid ending up in the policeman's peripheral vision.

"If I distract him, and you sneak past, we're clear, right? Though I am not sure whether you should go to the site alone, it indeed appears the only reasonable solution that I can see." Mitsuhiko answered calmly and threw him a quick look and a smirk. One that Conan found himself sending back. The kid had realized that a decoy was needed almost instantaneously and had acted accordingly. Conan made a mental note to take Mitsuhiko along more often, he was a most promising student of the detective's art.

"How do you intend to distract him then?"

Another smirk, this time way broader, followed his question.

"Well, I for one have never seen this officer, therefore I have only to think about a plausible excuse for me to talk to him. Once I have his attention, I think it leaves you with ample time to get past him. Leave the excuses to me, I believe I can think of something." Mitsuhiko answered and Conan had to think that this whole cloak and dagger operation was to the liking of the thin geek. For whatever reason. It seemed somwhat out of character for Mitsuhiko, but then again, he had never before been required to stay under the radar so heavily, so he had really no idea how his friends would react in such a scenario.

"Fine. You distract him and I sneak past him. I'll meet you on the other side behind the trees in twenty minutes. I guess that should be enough. Just make sure he doesn't follow you." Conan instructed and gestured to a group of trees behind the policeman, already outside of the police perimeter. As bizarre as it sounded, the place were the girl had been found was almost convenient. Slightly hidden behind a group of bushes and flanked by those trees. Therefore it could be watched by one person only. And as far as they had seen the technique of this policeman to watch the place had one major flaw. At least for the policeman. He never had turned around. He only kept his eyes on the paths in front, but had never looked behind. Meaning that as long as he was quiet, he would be in the clear as soon as he was past the man. It would be slightly problematic to get through the bushes on the other side, but it was manageable. He only couldn't approach from that side, it would have made too much noise.

_Blast it, I'll just need to be careful... _

Nodding to Mitsuhiko he watched as the lean kid himself put on the kiddie-act. Which; in itself, was hugely startling. He'd never seem one of his friends try the same tactic he so often employed. Slowly he began to suspect that these kids imitated him far more than he had been previously aware of. Suddenly the kid changed attitude and began walking towards the policeman, frantically shouting for someone called "Keiko-chan". Conan grinned from his hiding place as Mitsuhiko made his way over. Had he known that the decoy the kid planned would be something so ridiculously simple, he would have taped the thing with his cellphone to send to Hattori. These kids imitated him to such an extend that they even copied the kiddie-act, as they had seen him do it so often to wheedle information out of officials.

And apparently everything went according to Mitsuhiko's plan, as the policeman turned to him to ask what was wrong. Leaving Mitsuhiko to spin a tale about a lost cat, and his sister that was distraught over its dissappearance, and so on. Mitsuhiko also placed himself in such a way that the policeman had to turn his back towards Conan to listen. Carefully sneaking past, all the way fighting to stop the wild grin from splitting his face at the ears, Conan listened with half an ear to his friend. He had to give him credit, it sounded very believable and Mitsuhiko acted just like a child that had lost a beloved pet.

And then his focus shifted as he cleared the policeman's line of sight and crept behind the bushes to observe the scene. He had to hand it to the police, they had been very thorough in their investigation. At the spot where the body had been found the soil had been kept clear, but for a small path leading directly to where he surmised the body must have been. Looking around carefully, he couldn't see any footprints or anything that had been overlooked. Except three pawprints of a medium sized dog, in all probability the dog that had discovered the body and alerted its owner.

The grass in a three foot radius had been trampled, but that was to be expected. Several branches were clipped off, perhaps for them to compare it if they did get a link to a suspect. Quickly the non-child set to work, fishing a pair of latex gloves out of his pockets. A convenient thing to carry around, for sure, one could never know when he might have need of gloves. Especially considering his strange curse of finding bodies. Then he bent low to comb through the grass himself, all the time keeping the radius to the clear space. The earth had been dry, but not dry enough to have dust accumulating which would have given them footprints. Unfortunately the weather had been on the killer's side, allowing him to walk around without leaving footprints. There was also the possibility that the killer had deliberately erased any footprints he might have left on the ground, or he (though that option he really did not want to picture) had just thrown the body. The girl would have been small enough to be thrown, trussed up as she had been. That would also mean that the culprit could never have gotten near the scene itself, but could have been able to maintain a relatively safe distance to avoid leaving evidence.

Silently cursing, Conan continued to comb through the blades of grass, some small part of him hoping to find something, anything to put him on some sort of track. But another part of his brain (one that was much louder and bigger) shouted that he probably wouldn't find anything.

After ten fruitless minutes of searching, all the time keeping an ear out for the policeman on the other side of the bushes, he stood up, brushed the dust from his gloved palms and his knees to survey the scene in its entirety. As it was, it remained slightly hidden, and judging from the pawprints he spotted some two feet away, the dog had probably led the owner here to discover the site. The place was not easy to see from the path, if it hadn't been for that dog, Hanako might have been discovered much later.

As far as he could see, there was nothing particularly interesting about the site itself. It was simply a patch of grass between the bushes and trees. Angered with himself and the fact that there had been no evidence to find, Conan stuffed the now dusty gloves back into his pocket and turned to walk towards the trees behind. But despite his annoyance with the progression of the case so far, he was able to creep almost soundlessly through the undergrowth, grateful for Mitsuhiko, who still continued to talk to the policeman and so kept the attention away from the scene.

The shrunken tantei had to admit that it would have been much more complicated to get a look at the scene without Mitsuhiko there. And though he had meant to keep the kid out of it, he recognized the value of someone to depend on, especially while he was operating under the radar in a manner of speech. Which continued to irk him, he admitted to himself, while he sketched the layout of the scene in his notebook. It was immensly annoying to sneak around in search of clues and information, usually he was present when cases were discussed, often he was even simply overlooked, when a body was spotted somewhere. But this time both Kogoro and Ran kept a sharper eye than usual out, often checking on him, where he was, what he did, it almost felt like they kept him under observation. Something that didn't really help with the paranoia he had developed since being shrunk. And he had become paranoid, he knew that. But it was a reasonable reaction after all and his distrust of everyone around him (with a few exceptions) had saved his skin several times.

Slowly his mind started to focus on the meaning of them keeping such a close watch over him, all the time sketching around in his notebook. Sometimes being able to multitask was a convenient trait to have.

He was aware that he and his friends could also fall into the killer's MO, since the kids murdered had all been firstgraders. All around the ages of six to eight, which made his friends and him possible targets. But that was no reason to raise such a fuss. After all, they had been in numerous dangerous situations before and had emerged unharmed. Or mostly unharmed, if things had been a little too close. Perhaps (though the thought itself was ridiculous) the old man knew something he had not been able to glean yet. But if he did, why then the general watchfulness, instead of a pointed warning? It made no sense, however he looked at it.

Conan's thoughts ceased and propelled his focus back into reality as he noticed Mitsuhiko coming closer, occasionally throwing glances around. At the very least the lean boy was aware to keep a watch on his surroundings. Conan waited until the boy had drawn level with him, before falling into step with him towards the nearest park exit, away from the policeman and the risk of being discovered. Only when they had walked some twenty paces did the thin boy next to him speak.

"Were you able to find something?"

Grumbling Conan admitted that he hadn't.

"There's nothing there. Either the police have already gotten some evidence or there's just nothing there. But that would be a first ever, I've never heard from a scene where no evidence could be found. There's always something there, but back in that scene, there was nothing I could see. There's also nothing outstanding about the place either, which would allow us to understand why he picked that place to put Hanako down here." Conan continued, absently cupping his chin, while his mind walked through the scene again, cataloguing every blade of grass, and coming up empty handed. There was however one thing he hesitated to mention, simply because he had no possible evidence to back his claim up. Something was wrong with that crime scene, it was as if he had overlooked something, but considering that he had been combing through the place on hands and feet, it seemed unlikely. And yet there was a nagging feeling somewhere inside him, as if it was right in front of his nose, with him unable to spot it. For the moment however, he could not find any indication that his feeling was accurate, and therefore he chose to keep silent for the thime being and focussed on his tall friend again.

"But isn't that the oddest thing? That there is no evidence? I mean to recall reading about the trail humans leave behind, no matter where they go or what they do. I read that the average person loses between 50 and 100 hairs every day. And yet you say there has been no hair discovered that did not belong to one of the victims. It seems to me the oddest fact yet." Mitsuhiko supplied, showing off that vast amount of knowledge crammed into his brain.

"Its true, and I've been thinking about that too. Of course its possible that the culprit has shaved his entire body, I've heard about a case in America where a killer had done that to avoid leaving hair at the scene. Its possible and since one can get a wig and fake facial hair almost everywhere, it would be easy to change looks often. Its also possible that the culprit wore a net to prevent any hair getting on one of the victims. Problem is, for the moment thats just a theory and we have no way of proving it at this rate." he answered and filed that information away for later pondering over the possibility of it. For a while they were both silent, each wrapped into their own thoughts about this thing.

Just as they stood at the bus stop to wait for the next option to get back towards Beika, Conan remembered something.

"Say, earlier you said you told the others you had to give me something. What was that?" he asked and looked towards the other kid. Seemingly that had escaped Mitsuhiko's focus also, for he blinked twice, obviously jolted out of his own thought processes, before apparently remembering.

"Oh right. I meant to give it to you before you so rudely ran off. It is something I spent the weekend researching and though I am not certain in what degree it might help, it seemed useful at the time. If nothing else, it makes for an interesting read, though it is somewhat disturbing." the tall child answered and dug into the pocket of his jacket to produce several sheets of paper, carefully folded to fit into his pocket. Reaching over, Conan took the item and unfolded it to read. The headline alone caused his eyebrows to nearly graze his hairline.

**Serial Killers and their motivation - A discussion on the subject of serial killings, their definition and their operating modus**

"Where the he- ... heck did you find that?!" he asked, considerably surprised that his friend could mention something like this with nothing more than a passing glance and a shrug, when it was obvious he had spent some time researching the subject.

"On Saturday evening I went into the Internet via my sisters laptop. I googled and found several sites referencing to the subject. On Sunday morning I stumbled across the site of the FBI, which had apparently held a course about this and copied it. In the evening I managed to print it and decided to give it to you. Like I have said, I am not sure as to what degree this is helpful, but at the very least it makes for interesting, if disturbing reading material."

Conan was uncertain whether he should be proud or worried about the fact that Mitsuhiko had researched Serial Killers out of his own free will. And even stated that it was an interesting read. Sometimes the limits of this kid surprised him. And Mitsuhiko seemed to be burrowing ever deeper into the subject with an interest that exceeded the normal rate.

_I really need to keep closer taps on this kid... _

But as for that day at least, the hunt was over and the trail cold with no evidence to point anyone in something like a general direction. And with the sun sinking lower towards the horizon as they drove back to Beika, the chances for finding Katsuro dwindled also. Somewhere, deep within himself, Conan had already begun to understand that they would not find the kidnapped child in time. This had so far been an interlude, the main course had only just begun.

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A/N: I know that normally googling doesn't really link one to the FBI, but this last little thing actually came from personal experience when I was doing research for this fanfiction (and yes, I do research^^). I was trying to get some facts on serial killers in order to evolve my version of one and actually stumbled on the homepage of the FBI in the wee hours of the morning. And they indeed had a thirty site piece about serial killers. Basically that became my template for creating the serial killer for this fanfiction. And seriously, leave Mitsuhiko alone with a computer, something like this was bound to happen. Besides, no-one knows what that kid actually does when he's not hanging around Conan. Therefore its not that far-fetched if you really think about it... At least not from my point of view^^


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Okay, first off, let me explain *Screams dramatically and holds both hands outwards*... I had a very legitimate reason it took so long and I am perfectly willing to elaborate. I had actually written for this fanfiction and in a crazed fit I even reached chapter 8, but then I realized that somewhere along the way the story horribly carreened towards EPIC-OOC and I had to delete chapters 6 and 7 and start over again. Whihc was the main reason it took so long. 

Now, as for this chapter, the credit goes mainly to TWILIGHTreader1, who gave me the honour of being my very own personal sounding board and unofficial beta. The idea for the second half of the chapter was something we cooked up together and therefore the credit goes on equal parts to her as much as to me^^ And then she did me the honour of checking everything and correcting what she thought didn't work. As I believe she will notice, I really have put most (like almost all) of her suggestions in the final version of this chapter. So thanks a lot! *hugs*

**ATTENTION**: I am using a word called "Survey-shot" in the later part of this chapter. To those of you that are unfamiliar with that term, it is an expression used in photography and describes a specific type of photo, where the cameraman is standing at a higher vantage point and photographing an entire scene. In movies it would be called a "total", something that makes you see all of a possible scene in one shot.

So now that I've explained everything, all there is for me to say; is: Enjoy and feedback is appreciated, as always^^Spelling errors found may be kept and laughed at, though I do think I found them all^^

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**Tuesday 31st August 2011**

**Late Evening**

He had to smile as he saw the police press conference. In truth he had to stop himself from laughing aloud at the mere bravado in their voices. Even the famous detective, Mouri Kogoro, was present as a special consultant. Not that he would be of any help to the police of course. It was impossible and they all knew it. After all, every person in that room knew him too well.

In reality, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that the police were completely at a loss. Not one person knew the best way to advice the greater public. At best, they could give vague assumptions of the elusive killer. Their eyes were darting between each other, back and forth, suddenly anxious under the media's scrutiny and they had every right to be anxious. After all, they were being scrutinized, that was also very obvious. With each passing day they could not locate any trace of him, the press delved into ever greater assumptions. As a result the city was in a pit of horror. This he delighted in, because it meant that one single person basically held an entire city under siege. A surge of emotion filled our unknown assailant, and the feeling was glorious indeed. He knew they would not be able to catch him; they hadn't even begun to understand the full magnitude of his achievements yet. It was simple: They did not understand him.

Therefore they could not catch him.

A dark chuckle escaped his lips.

_Such fools. Arrogant and incompetent fools..._

It was true. After all; they could not find him, yet they still possessed the audacity to announce that his behaviour would not be tolerated, claiming to punish the man behind the murders with the full force of the law. Unspoken however, went the fact that they had nothing to go on and the press had an inkling on that. They had no evidence to substanciate their claim, and the case stagnated over time while the police went to ever more absurd ways of 'protecting' the children. It was nothing but camouflage to hide the fact they were helpless against his might.

Grinning he lifted his gaze to look at the far wall across the room. He had bought all of the papers so far and has carefully cut out all of his articles. He wanted to have visible proof of the terror he caused to the people of Tokyo. The most recent headlines boldly screamed: _'Killer still at large' _and _'Police baffled'_.

Over 100 articles in just shy of a few months; many of them cross posted in various abbreviatons within other papers; he could go on and on like this and watch while the city turned on the police and tore them to shreds.

_It would be interesting to witness... _

His attention was drawn back to the screen once more as the head of the investigation, Megure, gave the word to their resident consultant detective, Mouri Kogoro. For a moment, it was unsettling for the killer to be faced with his gaze; so filled with anger and pure hatred, but within the span of a moment he realized that Mouri was as clueless as the police.

It was an unexpected development to have such a famous detective on his trail, but it provided the murderer with some diversion. To see the feeling of utter helplessness in the eyes of the investigators as they realized they could not find him. It reminded the killer of all those children he had taken to the Dreamland. Just before they left, their eyes held the same hoplessness, as if their souls were cast away.

And he loved seeing it. He needed to see it.

_Come to think of it... _

He turned his gaze away from the screen; absently listening to Mouri making a grand declaration that he would catch the assailant; to look at a small lamp right next to his television. Dangling from it was a small digital stopwatch showing nothing but the numbers 70:47. His countdown for the boy he held captive. When the numbers reached 72:00 the boy would depart for the Dreamland.

It was time for him to check on the little one, perhaps he was awake once more. His excitement grew as he thought of seeing the spark of terror blazing in his captive's eyes again, just before he would leave.

And tomorrow he would watch again, waiting until the police realized their failure.

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**Monday 13th September 2011**

**Sometime in the Afternoon**

2 whole weeks had passed. Two damned weeks! Fourteen days without any progress regarding finding that deranged maniac. Fourteen days and they still had nothing, except another missing child, probably already dead. The public was frantic, the police slowly started to resemble a headless chicken and Kogoro was even more drunk than usual.

Conan himself, out of sheer frustration, was awfully close to banging his head into the nearest semi-solid object. The hardest part was probably the inactivity. He had tried to get into the other crime scenes, believing he would be able to find what he had not been able to in Hanako's case, but that plan quickly evaporated as soon as he got there. Seemingly the guard on Hanako's scene had only been lax and had just happened to be alone on duty that specific day. In every other place where a body had been discovered, Conan couldn't even get near, because they were each guarded by no less than three officers. Therefore; Hanako's remained the only crime scene he had been able to peruse himself, though he still was unable to figure out what exactly was bugging him about it.

The investigation (or lack thereof) and the fact that this killer seemed to blend in with the general public so flawlessly affected him also on a personal level. He made sure to know exactly where his friends were and constantly reminded them to stick together at all costs. To avoid being picked up by Ran every day (and being hounded about how tired he looked); Conan kept close to a group of Middle Schoolers, who just happened to take the same route he did to reach the Agency. It allowed him some time to think over everything. Not that he had no time to do that, after all, the nights were quiet at the Agency when one could ignore the snoring sleuth.

Frowning he remembered a conversation he had with Ran the other day, when they had been watching TV together. She was genuinely concerned about him even offered to take him to a doctor, simply because he looked so damn tired. She was right; in a way he really was damn tired; sleep was an occurence that did not happen often anymore. Well, not restful sleep anyhow. That had been rare enough even before this whole mess had begun, but now it was just fitful. His deductive imagination served to throw him into terrible nightmares, whenever he closed his eyes for more than twenty minutes. Adding in the fact that his friends were children of the same age as the victims and one gets a truly bad combination. He shuddered involutarily as he recalled a particularly nasty nightmare he had experienced some two days ago. He had dreamed the next victim found was Ayumi. To make matters worse (as is finding the dead body of a friend wasn't enough already), he had snuck into the crime scene, where Ayumi had suddenly opened her eyes and screamed.

Horrific.

Not that he wasn't used to having the occasional nightmare from time to time (after all, he was hiding from Gin and his goons). The only difference now was that the intensity as well as the frequency had increased drastically.

The only good thing that came from sleep disturbances at such irregular intervals was the presentation of lots of quiet time to think. He would have preferred to go over the official files in the office also, but he knew he wouldn't be given the chance. If only Ran wouldn't lock the damn door every evening. She had even made Kogoro install a second lock to keep the office safe from burglars; at least that had been the reason she had given.

_Sure... Like burglars are who they want to keep out... _

It was clear as day that she only wanted to keep him out of any official files. Sure, she was concerned, and he could understand that, but it was no reason to overreact like this. He also hadn't figured out exactly where she kept the keys, or he would have snuck them from her. A wry grin wound its way on Conan's features as his brain reminded him that such a premeditated action was the definitaion of burglary.

During the past fourteen days, Conan spent his time looking through the meagre data he had collected so far and trying his best at figuring out who this killer was from a psychological angle. Not that he was an expert by any stretch of the word, but as a detective he had come to know a bit of psychology. Of course, his knowledge consisted mainly to the common reasons for murder, such as jealousy and greed, but this killer was on an entirely different level. The other day, Conan had also taken some books from his library at home; his _real_ home; when he had decided to go to the Professor's and check on Haibara. Conan was relieved to find she was relatively okay and slowly recovering from what had actually been a bout of pneumonia, but of course he'd never tell her that. Unfortunately this would mean that Haibara would be out for a while yet. Though he'd somewhat miss working with the grouchy scientist (again something he would never tell her), he was happy to know that at least one of his friends would be accounted for. She'd been through enough in her life, without another maniacal killer going after her.

_Focus, Kudo..._

Wearily Conan raked a hand through his hair, willing his mind to stop going in circles. Insomnia and general anxiety slowly began to take their toll on his mental processes and he had to be at his best to catch that killer. Or at least to figure out some way to be included in the investigation. But the fact that he had almost nothing to work with grated on his nerves, making him constantly reigning his temper in, to avoid unleashing his anger at unsuspecting people. He had managed to convince the Shounen Tantei to leave this case to the police and though they had been somewhat reluctant; they had agreed, which had calmed him somewhat. The risk of them getting in trouble was simply too great. Ran wavered between concern over his welfare and worry over her father (who drank way more than the usual in the evenings). Also, seemingly as a by-product of his fruitless effort, Conan himself slowly began to doubt his faculties as a detective. Usually such thoughts were overruled by his confidence and the vague hope that if he was included in the investigation, he would have something to work with. Yet lately, that confidence took a little bit longer to show.

After all, he had almost nothing to work with, as they kept him so stoically out of the loop. How was he supposed to find anything, if that continued? Three days prior, he had accidentally bumped into Takagi-keiji on his way home. Even the officer that so often showed lenience with him had taken a pretty hasty retreat, making it painfully obvious that even the police was involved in Kogoro's annoying scheme.

And all Conan had to show for his efforts was a crude personality profile, of which he wasn't even sure whether it was accurate or not. It wasn't exactly as if he knew any psychologists he could ask.

Such it was that when he returned to the Agency, he was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he unknowingly walked into the office out of sheer habit. Conan failed to notice the great Sleeping Kogoro slumped over his desk, doing what he was famous for: sleeping.

The snoring served to bring Conan's mind back to the present, effectively drawing him out of his little pity-party. He then took a quick glance around, realizing where he was and was surprised at his luck. Fortunately, the older detective was nearly dead to the world, and since nothing had been cleaned either, it stood to reason that Ran was not back either.

Quickly Conan checked his watch. It was barely close to four in the afternoon. Normally Kogoro started drinking much later in the day (even under present circumstances), so the fact that he half-lay there, drunk off his head, meant it was bad news. Conan could already imagine what kind of news those were. Scowling the shrunken teen threw his pack onto the couch and stalked over to the window. If the man was intend on drinking himself to death, he could at least open a window, out of simple consideration for the people that could be walking in unknowlingly.

_Man, smells like someone lit a brewery on fire..._

Of course, the dead children haunted Conan's thougths also and every new dissapearance meant a new stone on his conscience, but it was no reason to drink oneself stupid. Alcohol would only delay the problem itself. In Conan's opinion, Kogoro should be working, not getting drunk in the middle of the damn afternoon. That was the only choice they had if they ever wanted to capture that sick murderer.

For a few moments, Conan stood at the window, looking out at the street, but not really seeing much. If one assumed the newest kidnap victim was now the newest murder victim, the death toll had risen to ten children. It was a heavy burden for any investigator, he could relate to that. After all, the names and ages, often even the pictures of their faces, loomed in the back of his head. But unlike Kogoro, Conan's frustration only caused him to work harder, to push himself even further in pursuit of the truth. That was perhaps the biggest difference between him and Kogoro (aside from the fact that the old man didn't even have a quarter of the brainpower he sported). Frustration simply fuelled his determination, with Kogoro it did the reverse. When that idiot was frustrated, he only proceeded to get as drunk as possible in the shortest amount of time manageable.

A gust of wind blew through the open windows and a gentle rustling seized Conan's attention. He turned away from the window to see that several things had been blown off the desk and onto the floor. Grimly he walked over to pick it up. At that moment, all his anger towards Kogoro and his drunken state vanished. Instead, he thanked all the stars above that the guy had decided to drink himself to oblivion this specific afternoon.

They were photos...

...high resolution crime scene photos scattered all over the floor.

Those were of a crime scene he hadn't yet seen. And man, were they ever so gruesome. Suddenly Conan could almost understand why Kogoro had deemed it neccessary to drink himself into a stupor. Everyone would need a drink after seeing this. With unerring accuracy, Conan had managed to pick a close-up shot from the kids face, or what was left of his face. Recalling the list of clothing mentioned in the news and comparing them to what he saw, this must have been Katsuro's scene then. Though there wasn't much left to distinguish the boy anymore, at least where facial features were concerned. The small kid's face was blotched and swollen almost past the point of recognition, covered in dark dried blood. On his neck and throat the tell-tale marks of strangulation were visible, violent purple against the pallor of the dead child's skin.

_Poor kid... If only I had some evidence to work with, maybe then I could have found him in time... _

Suddenly more determined than ever, Conan stalked around the sleeping detective, meaning to root through the photos while he had the chance. Conan hoped that the drunkard would not wake up while he was in the middle of snooping. He had no idea what effects that would draw, especially since they went to such extreme measures to keep him out of the loop. Well, at least this time he could blame it all on Lady Luck. Luck and a very drunken detective who had fallen asleep while rooting through photos in an unlocked office.

Not wasting any more precious seconds, he quickly gathered a few handfuls of photos (at least the ones he could get to without having to move the unconscious shape of Kogoro) and carried them to the coffee table.

He had a fair few of them, some he had already seen a while ago when he still had been able to sneak into the office; others he hadn't yet glimpsed. Then, for a moment, Conan froze completely. A noise was coming from the unconscious detective. The old man was stirring: he had mumbled someting intelligible and moved slightly. Fearing he would wake up, Conan instantaneously created a fall-out plan: hide under the table. But luck was on his side again, the man was simply changing positions.

This enabled Conan to get a few more photos, some had been lain on, others even drooled over; a most disgusting habit of Kogoro's. Especially when drunk. The man drooled in his sleep; Conan had found that one out pretty quickly and rather nastily, which involved a drooled-on hand touching his fce in the middle of the night. Conan shuddered at the recollection.

_Disgusting..._

But still, he had something to foucs on, at least while the old man was still sleeping. Gently wiping down the traces of saliva, he began to look at each photo carefully, before placing them neatly on the table. There were piles upon muddled piles of photos. Another thing that contrasted him from Kogoro, the man seemed to make a mess wherever he was and no matter the circumstances.

_Chaos just follows in his wake I suppose..._

After almost a half-hour of looking at photos, Conan was ready to call it quits. He was pushing his luck with the old man as it was, and each second more was another second closer to getting caught. Looking back at Kogoro, Conan sighed and got to his feet.

"All this time and not a single clue..." he said quietly to himself in a subdued voice as he began to gather all the photos together to return them to the desk. Just as he was about to walk over, Conan noticed something odd on the topmost photo. At that instant, he became aware of a dark spot on it. Experimentally, he rubbed over it to ascertain whether it was not simply a crumb of dirt left by God knows what.

But it remained. Therefore, whatever caused that dark spot in the picture wasn't superficial, meaning it was not on the paper, but rather in the picture itself. Interested Conan looked closer. It didn't appear to be a shadow of some sort, as he could see nothing that could have caused a shadow like this to begin with. It was just some dark spot, some distance away from the body (as it was a survey-shot he handled).

_All right... Technical problem then? Surely, if it was a camera issue, it should show up in other photos also..._

He looked through the next photos of the same crime scene. But there the spot should have been was now a clear image with no dark marks. None of the other photos of the crime scene had it, just in that one survey-shot.

_Well, this is interestng..._

If it had been a technical problem with the camera itself, there should have been the same dark spot in several other pictures at roughly the same place, but there wasn't. Also, it just didn't look like a camera problem. The spot appeared to be solid and some distance away from the lens: like it was part of the picture instead of on top of it.

_Okay, not technical then..._

Perhaps it was merely a spot of dust or dirt on the lens? But even as he thought it, all his instincts rebelled against such an explanation. The inexplicable stain was just too far away from the camera to simply be dirt on the lens.

Absently Conan looked at another photo.

_Different scene...different day... different body... different camera... same black spot. _

It was also at roughly the same place where the other had been, some five paces from the body.

_Okay, one is an accident, two is a coincidence...but three is a pattern..._

Interest genuinely piqued, Conan began to look for other photos that also featured the mysterious dark spot, just to see if there could indeed be a pattern to the randomness.

After rooting through the photos that were available to him, even managing to steal some more without alerting the still passed-out detective, he ended up with a grand total of four pictures that featured that same spot. As far as he could tell, it was roughly at the same position every time. Frowing, Conan tried to remember whether he had seen something similar in Hanako's scene, but couldn't recall anything from the top of his head. Also, he had been on his hands and knees for the most part. These pictures were taken from a higher angle, perhaps that was why he hadn't seen anything. The scene had lain in a relatively shadowy spot, finding something dark would naturally be somewhat difficult. In each of the photos the spot appeared in a sunny patch.

Also, it appeared so often that the possibility of a coincidence could be negated almost entirely. He wondered if the police knew about it and if they had already figured out what it was.

_Well, it's not like they would tell me, now is it? _

Grimly he took his notebook out and marked which scenes had that spot, which amounted to four out of ten. That hardly counted as compelling evidence, but Kogoro still lay atop the majority of the photos, so Conan couldn't ascertain whether there were more like it.

Faced with nothing other to do, he tried to imagine an aerial view of the crime scene he had visited. After all, roughly five paces was not exactly accurate information and he hated surmising. Therefore Conan took out a blank sheet of paper and began to crudely sketch out the scene, including everything he deemed important, such as trees, cars, footprints, etc. Having done that, he closed his notebook and absently shoved it back into his pocket.

So focused on what he was doing; Conan, sitting cross-legged at the table, barely even noticed as time passed. In fact, he was so preoccupied with his task and the thoughts swirling around in his brain that he failed to notice the footsteps approaching the office. Conan was used to such noises from the time he had spent in the office before, he had simply learned to blend that out completely. However, reality made itself known quite harshly, when he was ripped from the comforts of his own mind to the very irate form of Ran, who towered over him in a display of abject horror and plain outrage.

_Shit, busted..._

Immediately his fight-or-flight instinct kicked in; especially since he knew that Ran was dangerous when she had that specific look about her. At the same time, he was bloody sick of being hauled out of the room whenever the case came up, and the sleep-loss affected his ability to play the cute-routine with Ran.

"Erm, Ran-neechan...Err...I can explain...?" he offered weakly, almost seeing the steam rise from Rans head.

His words had a queer effect on Ran however. Whether he had intended it or not, he had actually shrunken back from her towering figure (made all the more imposing because he was so damn small at the moment) and had managed to put just the right pitch of fear in his voice; because he suddenly saw her deflating before she threw her father an angry glare.

_Poor guy, doesn't even know he's being glared to death right now..._

"I know Conan-kun. Its not your fault." Ran answered in an errie quiet tone, while stalking over to her still sleeping father. Conan witnessed Ran jab a finger in her fathers side, which only caused Kogoro to mumble incoherently and make a sweeping gesture.

_The guy always was hard to wake up..._ Conan thought wryly.

But seeing that Ran at least was angry with her father and not him, he deliberated that it might be an excellent opportunity to tell someone of his suspicions about that odd spot. That was, if he could get Ran to ignore the fact that he'd been looking at evidence photographs for the better part of an hour.

"Erm, Ran-neechan? ... I found something weird in these photos." he said, making a conscious effort to sound more puzzled than excited. Unfortunately Ran was in the middle of an attempt to haul her father into an upright position (probably to have better access to his ears in order to scream at him) causing her to lose her grip slightly. After that, gravity took over and Kogoro slammed head first onto the table. Which not only succeeded in waking him up, but also gave him a nice red blotch right in the middle of his forehead.

_I think I really should film this occasionally, it makes for great comic relief..._

But Conan was not allowed to dwell on that thought any longer, as Kogoro's bleary gaze wandered the room, eventually settling on Conan, amidst crime scene photos.

_Damn, I wonder if I get to say something now..._

"Conan, what the hell are you doing there?! I told you to stop sticking your nose in my investigation!" The man almost roared and surged to his feet. Conan was familiar with that and could count on the fact that Kogoro's inebriated state made him easier to be avoided. Fortunately, Lady Luck seemed to not have left him completely, as Ran protectively moved in front of her surrogate little brother, staring her father down. And boy, was she ever so furious. It was always equally disturbing and interesting to watch Ran in such a state, as most people shrank back from her when she was radiating such anger.

"This is your fault too, Otou-san! You were the one who fell asleep here and left these photo's out in the open!" she accused her father, obviously having already forgotten what Conan had said to her just moments before.

_Well... now or never... _

"Ran-neechan? I said I found something weird in these photos."

Oddly enough, the sentence caused the scene to calm down almost immediately. Ran turned to him with an expression he couldn't quite categorize, while Kogoro looked vaguely interested. After all, the old man was used to Conan saying that or various variations of it on almost every other crime scene.

For the moment however, a noogie seemed not to be on the toplist of priorities for Kogoro, so Conan seized his chance, grabbed the four pictures with the spot and walked over to the desk. Taking precautions to give the detective room to breathe (as a figure of speech) Conan stayed close to Ran.

"How come you were looking at them anyway?" Ran asked, not entirely able to hide her suspicion.

Contemplating his answer quite carefully, Conan decided that at least part of the truth could be safely told, even though it killed him every time he had to lie to Ran.

"Well, I came back and Oji-san was sleeping, so I opened the windows. And then the wind blew some photos to the I went to pick them up, I started to look at them. And then I saw that," Conan pointed the black spot out to Ran, "it kinda looked out of place." He handed Kogoro the first photo that he had come across and pointed it out again. By now, the irritation seemed to be gone, and Kogoro looked somewhat calmer than before. Therefore Conan deemed it safe to climb onto the chair and hand the rest of the photos over.

"Meh, could just be some dirt or something. That was a construction site, you know? Dirt is pretty common there." The older sleuth replied, handing the photos back.

"I thought so too, but the same thing is on the other three photos and they're not on construction sites, now are they?" Conan argued, shoving the pictures back towards Kogoro.

Seemingly vaguely interested, Kogoro started studying the photos, while Conan used the time to quickly root throught he remaining photos Kogoro had slept on, looking for anything that seemed similar. By now, Ran had apprehended one of the photos from her father, looking intently at the blackish spot, bending slightly over Conan to compare the photo in her hand with the ones spread on the desk.

"Must be a camera malfunction then." Kogoro obstinatley replied, giving Conan the bizarre wish to bang his head on the table-top. However, the older sleuth continued speaking, as if he was no longer aware of anyone being in the same room with him. "But then it should be on most of the pictures also..." He paused for a small moment before continuing, clearly lost in his thoughts, "Also it doesn't look as if it has anything to do with the camera." Kogoro now also bent over Conan, his eyes (at least partly cleared of the alcoholic haze of before) scanning the pictures on the desk.

"Found another one. That makes five." Conan said triumphantly, grabbing yet another photo and giving it to Kogoro, whose forehead wrinkled in thought. As he leaned back, he had one photo in hand, while the other absently stroked his mustache.

"This many can't be a coincidence, but I don't remember seeing anything like that on location, and we all combed through the place with a fine tooth comb. And what is that anyway?" he wondered aloud, unconsciously mirroring Conan's own thoughts.

He too puzzled over what this weird stuff might be. Could it really be dirt... actual dirt that was put there? He took another look at one of the photos, concentrating only on the blackish spot in the background of the image.

"Is it just me or does it look like its faintly sparkling?" Ran asked, her voice very close to Conan's left ear. Quickly he chanced a glance towards her, but averted his eyes swiftly. He loved and hated it when she came so close to his face that he could see every detail on her visage. Loved it, because he loved her (he was still mature enough to realize that after all); and hated it, because he got all flustered when she came so close. That was something he really didn't want right now, especially since he had other things to worry about, namely what she had said.

"Sparkling? What do you mean?" he asked, narrowing his eyes to peer closer at the photo. Her slender finger wandered to the blackish spot and pointed. Again, her voice was very close as she answered, but he willed himself to be ignorant of that fact for the moment.

"There. It almost looks like it's kind of sparkling. But if it is sparkling, then what is it? And why has no one seen that before?" She sounded as puzzled as Conan felt.

If it was indeed sparkling, it was impossible to be missed by the investigators. Then again, it only seemed that way because of the photo. But what would appear as if sparkling, and how could no one pay attention to it otherwise?

"Well, whatever that is, it's obviously still there, as I don't remember anyone remarking on it. So all I need to do is call Magure-keibu, drive out there and see for myself." Kogoro stated, already grabbing his jacket and fixing his tie. Seeing an opportunity, Conan turned to the older detective, and just as he was about to speak, Conan was faced with that strange gaze again. That concerned look.

_This is SO weird..._

"And no, you will not be coming with! If there's really something there, it's a great piece of evidence that the police can find. Don't worry, they should be grateful to you, because you found it." Allowing his tone to soften, the older detective continued, just as Conan was about to voice some protest. "Besides, we can't be sure that this guy is not lurking at some crime scene just to see how we progress. And the last thing I need...err, I mean..._we_.. uh, we need, is you getting in the line of fire. So you'll stay here, do your homework or whatever and I'll go check it out." Mouri finished his little speech, and made his way towards the door.

"But I..." Conan started, but found his sentence cut short by the older detective, who now stood in the doorway.

"But nothing. You'll stay here and that's all I will hear about this." Kogoro nearly growled and walked out; leaving Conan behind with a still slightly puzzled Ran, who now laid a tentative hand on the boy's shoulder.

_Great... Now I found something, but have to wait again... Just awesome..._

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Wow, didn't realize it was that long of a chapter until I finally uploaded it here. I think the next chapter will be a bit smaller, but that really depends on what that annoyingly persistent plotbunny has to say to that^^ 

Like I suggested, type in a quick comment below and tell me what you think of it. I seriously hope the next chapter will not take so long to finish and for all of you itching for action: HAVE PATIENCE! I need to have all the clues out there until I can get to the action, though granted, there aren't much clues left *giggle*_  
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	7. Chapter 7

Well, folks... I proudly present Chapter 7! *cheer* I give almost all of the credit of this chapter to my AWESOME Beta TWILIGHTreader1, who was the one that actually knocked this loose in my mind! We both puzzled over it for some days, but her checking it took a bit longer than we had expected. But before you dare going for her throat, I have to say it is not her fault! She had finals coming up and was pretty busy at school... Yesterday she was done checking and correcting and I took this day to type up the final version of the chappie for your enjoyment^^ I hope you like it...But I'm sure you do^^

And for all of you who think that I might not finish this, don't fret my friends! Since my beta will be on winter vacation soon, we should be able to update more often^^ And I will finish it, come hell or high water...

There is actually one thing I need to make clear here, especially since the latest reviews... I KNOW that Conan/Shinichi knows the FBI, but I saw no reason to add them in and as my beta so eloquently put it, he doesn't need to go to them for every little thing^^ Also, they've got their hands already filled with the Black Org. so bringing them into this case would be too complicated, not to mention that the FBI has no jurisdiction in Japan^^

Also, time table wise, I fitted this in somewhere before that guy moved into Conan/Shinichi's house, simply because I need that house to be empty later on. So I omitted him. Also because of the fact that there are only so many people I can fit into my brain, and I have enough to do with three detectives (not counting the resident one up there) and one psychopath^^

Well, since I've been able to explain these matters that apparently needed clearing up, all that remains to say is: Enjoy! And leave a review while you're at it! *muahaha*

**One more thing: We now officially open the 'send-the-chibi-to-therapy' Fund! If you want to send Conan to therapy after the conclusion of this fiction, leave a cyber-cookie with your review and we'll be giving them to everyone's favourite chibi-tantei! Because, you know, cookies make everything better! Now, be kind and donate today!**

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"Another long, mind-numbing day at school..." Conan sighed, resting his head against the shoe lockers for a moment. His last class of the day had just ended, finally allowing him to go home. Granted though, given how often he had actually dozed off during class today, it had almost been bearable. Sighing, the little detective walked through the school's gate onto the sidewalk. It was rather windy, leading Conan to clutch his jacket closer to himself. After a while of fighting with Mother Nature, Conan just zipped up his red hoodie and gave up on struggling.

The faux child sighed again, wearily raking a hand through his dark hair, unable to stop yawning.

"I'm so damn tired," his statement was soon followed by another yawn. He really needed some sleep, but as soon as he closed his eyes, images of terrified and injured children would swarm his mind; the faces of all those children he could not save haunted him constantly. They were no longer bound by the confinements of his sleeping mind and the nightmares he suffered from. Now, they plagued his waking thoughts as well.

While walking past the school's building, Conan was drawn out of his gloomy thoughts by someone calling his name.

"Conan-kun! Hey, Conan-kun!"

"Conaaan!"

The mini-tantei instantly stopped dead in his tracks and turned around only to see his three little friends run towards him. For a moment, everything seemed almost perfect. The way they cheerfully ran to him seemed almost like a long forgotten dream. For a second, everything seemed just as it always were. He stood still, not daring to move, out of fear that one wrong step would allow reality to disrupt the moment. Therefore, Conan simply stood there, waiting for them to reach him.

"What is it?" Conan finally asked as they got close enough. The little tantei had a smile plastered on his face, mirroring the ones the children had. He was almost amused watching them catch their breath. This was so like them to simply run as fast they could to tell him something.

_They're much too energetic for their own good... _he privately thought.

Ayumi was the first to calm down enough to formulate words. Mitsuhiko and Genta on the other hand were still wheezing. Well, Genta was wheezing; Mitsuhiko was much further along in the process of getting his breathing under control than his bulky friend.

"Well, you see, since school ended earlier than usual today, we thought of going to the park and playing a little bit. Why don't you come along, too?" Ayumi asked, her face still slightly red from the marathon sprint a few seconds ago. She was also still breathing a bit heavily as Conan noticed her chest rise and fall rapidly. But what caught his attention even more was the smile she had on her face. It was so innocent and free of any concern. It brought Conan an odd sense of peace to see her so carefree. He couldn't help but smile at her in return. The expression on his face was similar to that of an older brother. As young as he might look physically, inside he was still a mature 17 year old.

"Yeah, Conan. You've been grumpy all week. Let's go do something fun!" Genta added, never one for subtlety.

"And don't worry about this killer. We all have our badges with us, see?" Mitsuhiko threw in. As if on cue, all three of them brought out their badges, waving them right in front of Conan's face. For a moment, Conan couldn't process more than the fact that Mitsuhiko seemed to have perfected the art of reading his mind, since he constantly deduced correctly what Conan was worrying about.

The shrunken sleuth took a look at his three friends, just standing in front of him, calmly waiting for him to make a decision, or in their case, jumping up and down like monkeys on meth, anticipating the 'yes' that was bound to leave Conan's lips. After all, no other word existed as a response in the little bubble that was their world.

_They all look so happy and light-hearted...the way they used to be before this killer showed up... _

Conan was flooded with anger as he thought about it. As the emotion consumed his being, the sky darkened, as if a storm was approaching. Suddenly, he felt so damn tired again.

_I have to find a way to get some sleep..._

It had been weeks, since he had felt fully rested. Conan cast a quick look to the swirling dark clouds over his head before facing his friends again. He didn't really feel up for a round of 'kick the can' at the park. There were more urgent things on his mind. Children were dying and he had to put a stop to it, before this escalated any further.

"Thanks for the offer, but maybe nex-"

"It's okay. You'll play with us tomorrow, right?" Ayumi interrupted, her face creasing in sadness, even though she forced a smile. It was almost pleading.

Seeing such an expression, Conan felt his smile vanishing. Yet another one of his friends was able to surprise him. They became so perceptive, or maybe he became unable to pretend with them. But this time, Conan wondered if somehow, she had anticipated his answer.

"Sure... Tomorrow." he answered sadly, knowing that he would decline every day until the matter of the killer was dealt with.

Their desire to keep his mind off things was understandable though. They saw him every day, and Conan was aware that with each day he passed, he looked more and more worn. With their apparently new-found ability to guess what he was thinking, it was unlikely they had missed his tiredness. Sure, he'd try to keep up the pretence for their benefit, but he could only pretend for so long. Probably, Ayumi had known that he wouldn't agree to an afternoon of games, but wanted confirmation that he would join them at a later date. That he would be back to his normal self. Apparently, it wasn't just Conan who wanted things to be as they used to.

Ayumi cast him a last look, a pleading, almost desperate look. It seemed so out of place on the normally cheerful girl, so much in fact that Conan was tempted to ask what was wrong. The change had come so suddenly that he couldn't understand what could have caused her mood to deteriorate this fast. Her heartbreaking expression yearned to convey hidden words that did not dare leave her lips.

Conan simply stood there for what felt like a good minute or so, just scrutinizing her face. He desperately wanted to ask what was worrying her, but his throat seemed to close up. Just as the words were about to form, it went dry, not permitting sound to come out. He could only watch as Ayumi turned around facing the two boys behind her and enthusiastically encouraged them about having a fun time at the park. They were all cheering, the way they usually did before setting off for a fun-filled afternoon, including Ayumi. It was as if she'd already forgotten the sadness that plagued her, or maybe...Conan wasn't the only one that had a talent to lock away his true feelings at a moment's notice.

The shrunken sleuth simply stood there, watching his friends run off. He desperately wanted to follow for some reason, but his legs suddenly felt like lead, not allowing him to move. His predicament left him with no choice but to watch his friends leave with the hope that they would be okay.

Time seemed to slow down while the clouds overhead twisted into grotesque shapes in a darkened sky. His friends' retreating figures were no longer visible, but Conan remained for a few moments longer.

Consumed by the urge to do something, yet unable to figure out what exactly, Conan finally turned and continued on his way. He still had some ground to cover to reach the Agency, and he wanted to arrive there before it started to rain. Out of habit, he looked at his watch, but was taken aback by what he saw.

"How odd, it's barely 2..." Conan mumbled to himself as he absently rounded the corner of his school grounds. But instead of another street to walk down, he found himself at the corner of the Agency. For a moment, it confused him. Normally, the walk from school took him a solid 30 minutes. Conan somehow ended up at his destination without any memory of how he got there, but he paid no real mind to it. He made his way up the stairs, letting himself believe to have simply blacked out during the walk due to his sleep deprivation. It also happened many times when Conan was deep in thought; he simply failed to pay attention to his surroundings. After all, it was a much better assumption than losing one's grasp on reality or something equally disturbing.

The little tantei opened the door to the flat above the Agency and called out a greeting, which went, however, unanswered. Abandoning his schoolbag, Conan walked into the living room, only to find it empty. The only sound in the room was coming from the TV that was for some reason still on, quietly broadcasting some soap opera. The scent of Ran's cooking engulfed the small apartment, but a quick glance into the kitchen proved useless also. There was no one home.

_Perhaps Ran went to the store to buy something she forgot for dinner..._

That seemed like a plausible enough solution, and of course, Kogoro surely went to some bar to drink himself silly again. As much as Conan appreciated the time he had to himself for a change, suddenly being home alone didn't seem that appealing. Unfortunately, all he could do was wait until his surrogate family came back.

His mind was too shot at the moment to attempt looking through case files. Therefore, he decided to head for the couch and at least, try to relax. Even though Conan felt the lingering effects of sleep-loss creeping up on him, his brain refused to be silenced. It was like having a mini-radio inside one's head running at full blast; it just wouldn't stop talking. To make matters worse, he was still anxious because of everything that had happened, making the little tantei very restless. Not able to sit still any longer, Conan decided that it would be a good idea to walk around the block; maybe that would clear his head a little. Physical exercise usually helped, and a walk around the block seemed safe enough. He could even stop by the bookstore and get himself some new reading material or something, anything to stop his mind from going in circles. On his way out, Conan stopped by the TV, seeing the signal apparently lost. All the screen now showed was static, and for some unfathomable reason, it creeped him out. He wasn't sure why; he just knew that it did. Quickly, he grabbed the remote and shut the television off. As the screen turned black, thunder rumbled in the distance, strangely causing the ground to vibrate ever so slightly.

Choosing not to think about it for the moment, Conan shrugged it off as he stepped outside. Noticing the almost black sky, he took another glance at his watch.

_8pm... can't be..._

And yet he was staring at the proof. When he looked up again, Conan found himself in a place he didn't recognize. Tall trees obscured his vision, even the light that had seemed to be around him a moment ago faded, casting the boy in darkness. Puzzled, he searched around but was unable to recognize a single thing as the trees overwhelmed his vision.

Conan's heart skipped a beat. He had no memory of how he came to be in this place.

_How strange..._ he thought while looking around, quietly sighing. He was extremely overdue on some sleep.

Suddenly, his senses seemed to go from 'normal' to 'hyper-aware' and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He knew that feeling; someone was watching him. To make the situation worse, Conan was alone in a sea of trees with no idea how to get back to civilization. A shudder travelled down his rigid spine before he could stop it.

_This is bad..._

Whoever was watching him, it was definitely not a passer-by. Conan could feel the hunger in that gaze. Caught by such a stare, the small detective couldn't help but feel like the mouse in front of the snake.

Determined to keep at least the pretence of confidence despite his racing heart, he turned and started walking in any direction. Sooner or later, he would have to come across a street. After all, Tokyo was not exactly renowned for its copious plant life. At some point, he'd reach some sort of civilization.

Covertly casting a nervous glance around him, Conan hoped to catch a glimpse of his stalker, but no one was there even though he still felt that stare. At this point, Conan had turned around, feeling reason rapidly leaving him. Suddenly, he heard branches break. The noise seemed to be coming from all around him and yet nowhere at all: both things at the same time. The shrunken tantei kept turning to face the direction of the sound, but found himself to be unable to locate where exactly it originated. His heart seemed almost ready to jump from his chest and his breathing hitched, as he completely realized how much danger he was in. Immediately, his mind jumped to the worst possible conclusion, allowing only one thought to rule his mind: He was in deep shit, indeed.

Another branch snapped, louder and nearer, followed by another rumble of thunder and that strange vibration underneath his feet. Logic departed completely, making way to absolute panic, causing Conan to dart forward like an arrow released from a string. Closely behind, the snapping followed, ever nearer to him. Despite how fast he ran, it seemed to be right on his heels which only served to drive the spike of panic deeper into his core.

He heard rapid breathing, while the branches creaked and shuddered and the leaves scattered in sudden gusts of wind. The breathing grew louder, as if he was running towards it instead of away from it. Realizing this, Conan stopped suddenly. Willing his frantic lungs to calm and his frantic heart to quiet down, he couldn't help but act like a paranoid child.

The wind caused the trees to sway and groan, while thunder rumbled through the sky. The shrunken detective's small form stood in shadows and shot panicked glances at his surroundings. Conan flinched violently as a flock of birds suddenly disturbed in their rest, scattered into the sky. At this point, his entire body was shaking. Usually logic overruled fear in his mind, but not this time. Panic gnawed at him as his instincts screamed at him to keep running, but his muscles were unable to move.

No longer knowing what to do, Conan shut his eyes and covered his ears with his hands, like a five-year old kid terrified of a storm. At that moment, he truly was nothing more than the child he appeared to be to the world, and for that moment, he felt exactly as he looked.

Finally admitting his fear, the shrunken tantei was ready to break into another run, anything to get away from that dreadful feeling of panic and all those surrounding sounds. Conan ran and ran until he thought he would pass out on the spot, but he felt like he was going in circles. He hadn't even reached a clearing of any kind. His little body was way past its limit, but the chibi refused to stop. As he passed a few oversized and gnarled trees, his foot got caught on one of the roots, causing him to crash to the ground. His body slid through mud and roots, skinning most of his exposed flesh. Not even paying attention to his wounds, Conan shot a glance over his left shoulder to see if his follower was still in pursuit, but couldn't see anyone. Just as he was about to get to his feet again, everything suddenly fell quiet. It was as if someone pressed the mute button on a remote. Yet again, a noise that sounded much like thunder roared overhead as a shaking sensation consumed the earth.

Confused, Conan looked around. The only things visible were the leaves that still scattered over the ground and the trees, still in motion. It was just silent. Soundless wind still howled through the night, but the monster chasing him was nowhere to be found. The feeling of being watched and followed had also disappeared. For the span of a few frantic heartbeats, he felt utterly alone in the world. And that feeling of loneliness was almost worse than the panic that had ruled him but a few moments ago.

Then his ears picked up a sound, somewhere to the left of him. Automatically, he turned, only to find himself at the corner of a deserted street, leading to a dark alley. Left with little other choices, Conan walked down the empty road towards the noise. As he got closer, he was able to identify the sound as sobbing. Realizing that it sounded very similar to a child's voice, he moved quickly towards it, making his way into the alley. Not knowing what he would find there and no longer caring, Conan moved his tired, aching legs, hoping to find whoever it was that needed help.

The closer he got, the clearer he could hear it. There was a sobbing child somewhere in this grimy alley. A sound that made his skin crawl. Finally reaching the entrance of the alley, Conan surveyed the area. Huddled against a wall some distance away from him, a small girl was sitting in an upright fetal position with her head tucked and arms slung around her knees, trembling in the cold. The small child wore a ragged and ripped dress, something that surely could not protect her from the biting wind. The clothes were dusty and rumpled, even torn in several places and covered in dark stains. The same stains seemed to be in her brunette hair, disheveled as it was.

Conan slowly approached the huddled, crying figure. A bad feeling began to spread through him, he wanted nothing more than to grab the little girl and start running. With every sob and gasp he heard, every time her shoulders shook and her body trembled, Conan felt himself become fearful for the girl. Crouching down directly in front of her, the scent of blood invaded his senses. The girl was covered in it.

If only to make her stop crying, Conan reached out to touch her, but his arm only made it half the way, before the girl raised her bloodied head and locked gazes with him. His hand fell limply to his side as he beheld the girl in front of him. Sorrow spread in his chest as he looked and saw, in all its agonizing clarity, all there was to see. Words failed him as a single tear slid down his cheek, and he realized exactly who he was looking at.

Her hair was dirty and covered in dried blood, clinging to her forehead like a dark mat. Her left eye was swollen shut and trickled a small amount of blood, mixing with her tears as it ran down to reach a bleeding, split lower lip. A deep gash on the left side of her temple slowly oozed blood, which was already coagulating.

The small girl just continued to cry, sniffling quietly and occasionally reaching a bruised hand to brush tears off her cheek. And as she did so, Conan became aware of dark purple marks on her throat: marks of strangulation. Somehow, Conan was able to see every wound as clearly in the dark as if the sun was shining on them.

Unable to hold himself up any longer, the shrunken sleuth sunk to the ground. Shaking, he buried his head in his hands, failure creeping up his spine, while he could no longer hold the tears at bay.

"Co-Conan-kun..." she croaked out. At the sound of her faint, broken voice, he lifted his gaze again. She sounded throaty, as if she'd been screaming for a long time.

"He...he f-found m-me..."

_Oh please, no..._ Conan just stared at her, unable to say a word.

She kept sniffling and the sound nearly broke him to pieces. He couldn't answer her; all he could do was sit there and listen to her croaking, brittle voice, broken by sobs and tears.

"H-..hhe...pl-lease..." she continued, "I'-m ... sc-car-ed... Hel-p m-me..." She couldn't hold back her tears anymore and began to cry anew. Her tears were spilling over bruised and bloodied cheeks, leaving faintly pink trails on the pallor of her skin. The little girl buried her head into her knees again, while her arms hugged her legs to her chest tightly, as if she was falling apart.

Conan's blood ran cold as he saw her doing so. Somehow that image burned itself inside his mind, and he was aware that he'd never forget it.

"A-...Ayumi..." he choked out, once more trying to reach for her, but found his arm would no longer obey his command. He had spoken so softly that he was surprised she had even heard him, but her movements stilled and her shaking stopped utterly, while she lifted her head once more to look at him. Conan stared back, noticing with dread that the life had left her eyes, leaving behind only a blank stare. The same dead stare he had seen on all those crime scene photos. He couldn't move; Conan was paralyzed by his friend's lifeless eyes.

And then, so very suddenly, her head tipped backwards, revealing the terrible strangulation marks and her lungs heaved a gigantic breath. Her mouth opened and she screamed, as he'd never heard anyone scream before. It was a dreadful howl of pain and betrayal, causing Conan to cover his ears. He couldn't handle hearing her scream like that; the mere sound shattered him into pieces and crumbled his world into a jumbled mess around him. He had failed her.

Conan crouched there, his hands covering his ears with his eyes shut tightly, trying desperately to drown out her screams. Those terrible howls broke him completely. He failed to protect her, failed to protect a friend from this monster, and he had no one to blame but himself. Her screams got louder and louder and then simply stopped. It was so abrupt that it took a moment for him to realize it. Silence descended as Conan sat there, his small lungs heaving in a despairing attempt to calm himself down, but it was a useless effort, and he knew it.

Opening his eyes and uncovering his ears, Conan looked up, only to find the spot where Ayumi had been, to be empty. Looking around, he tried to spot the girl, but she was gone. It was impossible for her to have gotten up and walked away, logic told him so, and yet she was gone.

_Why did I take my eyes off her..._ the boy scolded himself, becoming ever more frantic as he looked around. He had been right in front of her; there was no way she could have gotten past him without him noticing. Still, he was alone in the alley. The feeling of loneliness washed over him for a brief moment, but was soon drowned out by utter despair.

How was he ever going to look Mitsuhiko and Genta in the eyes again? For that matter, how was he ever supposed to face the world again, knowing that he had failed to protect one of his friends?

Then, just as he was crouching there, silently debating whether to lie down and be done with everything, a different feeling invaded his senses once more. The feeling of being watched returned and with it, a dark, heartless chuckle.

On reflex, Conan spun around, jumping to his feet as he did so. His eyes automatically flew to the entrance of the alley. Soundless wind still blew around him, ruffling his clothes and hair, as the shrunken tantei stared at the person just a few feet away from him, blocking the only exit. It was a tall, dark mass, vaguely human-shaped: being nothing more than a black shadow in a dark night. Thunder sounded again, causing the ground to vibrate once more, as it had happened before.

Another chuckle wafted through the air, causing Conan's heartbeat to race away again, while all other reason rapidly fled the boy's thoughts. For a terrifyingly long moment, he truly was no more than a scared child.

In a clear voice, laced with evil and sadistic pleasure at seeing a child quake in fear, the man spoke, a quiet hiss that echoed all around the boy.

"Your turn."

The ground shuddered again as a hand stretched towards Conan and cold fingers clamped around his throat. Slowly, everything was drowned in an eclipse of darkness, as the entire world around him started to vibrate intensely.

At that very moment, Conan surged upright in his bed, sweating profusely, while the scream he wanted to voice died in his throat. As his body shook violently almost to the point of hysterics, his gaze roamed his surroundings, for a moment unsure of where he was. Then, realization hit as he heard the soft sound of snoring coming from Kogoro, and Conan felt the sheets tangled around his legs. He was in his bed, in the room he shared with Kogoro above the Agency.

_It was only a dream... just a dream..._ Conan closed his eyes, as he tried to calm his breathing. He desperately tried to convince himself that what he'd just seen was not reality. After all, he had been sleeping, but his mind protested such logic. It was just too vivid, too terrible...too close to home. Conan took a deep breath and sighed.

"God-dammit..." he whispered, numbly noting how shaken his voice was, "A dream... just a dream..." He kept repeating this quietly to himself, as if saying it would make the terror go away.

His eyes roamed his surroundings again, frantically trying to calm down. A part of him believed that he was stuck in that terrible, god-forsaken alley. He half expected the nightmare image of Ayumi to be crouched in a corner of the room. Slowly but surely though, the snoring and the sheets around him, combined with the familiar sights and smells, reinforced the message that it indeed had only been a dream.

"Shit...Ayumi again..." at this point the mini-tantei was rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "Yesterday, it was Mitsuhiko. Who's next, Genta?!" he mumbled to himself, passing a shaking hand over the rest of his face. He tried to banish the images of his friends being hurt from his mind, but it was a useless struggle. At this rate, he might forgo sleeping all together.

Every night, it was a new nightmare, a new person to get harmed in gruesome and terrifying ways. He needed to get his roaring emotions back under control or risk that dreadful nightmare becoming a reality. It almost felt as if he **was** a child, feeling scared and helpless. Conan never was able to help any of them. He was always too late, too slow...too small to make a difference. It also didn't help that, most of the times, it was his friends who were being hunted, tortured, and murdered. He'd even had one of Haibara. That had been the worst so far; he still shuddered to recall it. She had seemed too broken in that dream; Conan couldn't imagine even Gin going so far to break her.

A slight vibration startled him out of his grim thoughts and caused him to jump what felt like 5 feet into the air. His eyes flew towards the cause of the noise only to realize belatedly that it had been his cell phone vibrating. That also most likely explained that odd shaking sensation he'd experienced several times during the dream. It had been next to his pillow, vibrating, several times during the night, apparently. Drawing a shaking breath, Conan grabbed his phone, only to see that he had 4 missed calls in the last half-hour. The last call must have been what had caused him to wake up.

"At least, the phone woke me up before that dream progressed any further... I'd hate to see what happened next," he sighed and shakily stood up. He needed to be out of the room. All urge to go back to sleep had evacuated his mind. He didn't feel like risking another nightmare.

Softly closing the door, he made his way to the table in the living room, before checking his phone to see who called him so late, even though he already had a fairly good idea. Looking at the caller ID, Conan found his suspicions confirmed. After all, there was really only one person who would call him in the middle of the night. Instinctively pressing redial, the call was answered before the second ring could sound.

Conan didn't even have the time to say a greeting, before his Osakan friend started talking, "Jeez, Kudo! How many times do I have to call?!" Hattori all but yelled into his phone. It was obvious that he had been constantly trying to reach him.

Breathing deeply to cover his somewhat shaking voice, Conan tried to reason with his friend, "It's the middle of the night, Hattori!"

"Yeah, so?" his tanned friend replied nonchalantly, causing the shrunken sleuth to pass a hand over his eyes wearily.

"Some people actually sleep at night..." Conan sighed, feeling oddly calmed by the utter cluelessness of his friend.

A small laugh erupted from the other end of the line. "I guess yer right," Hattori responded, still chuckling quietly.

Conan stayed quiet for a moment, simply rolling his eyes at his friend's antics. "Why are you calling anyway? Can't this wait until morning?" the shrunken detective asked, forcing his mind to concentrate on the current conversation rather than the dream he just had.

"Sorry, Kudo... I jus' couldn' sleep, is all..."

"So you decided to call and wake me up." That wasn't a question. Even though his comment relayed his supposed annoyance, Conan was grateful to his friend for waking him up. As he heard Hattori's chuckle from the other end of the line from his sarcastic jibe, a small smile wound its way upon Conan's features.

"Sorta," was Hattori's short reply, followed by another round of laughter. Something told Conan that the guy had known all along that his short friend was sleeping. Granted, Conan WAS glad for the rude awakening, so he decided to let it slide... for now. On any other day, that would have been a different story.

For a few moments, the line stayed silent. Then, an almost imperceptible sigh could be heard from the Osakan, leading Conan to believe there was more to this call than just a bored detective unable to fall asleep. Most likely, it had to do with the series of child killings in Tokyo. After all, Hattori had called before, but that had been almost two weeks ago.

A moment later, Conan's suspicions were confirmed when Hattori began to speak in a quiet, serious voice. "It's all over da news, ya know?" the Osakan said quietly. His voice was so solemn and serious that Conan stayed quiet and listened as his friend continued, "Even though, he's only goin' after Tokyo kids, people 'ere are in a frenzy."

Conan sighed heavily, absently pinching the bridge of his nose. Panic among the citizenry of Tokyo, he had expected, but Osaka seemed a bit too far away for that. Still, the shrunken tantei wasn't that surprised by the news. It was to be expected after all.

"I know Hattori," he said. Conan's voice came out so tired that he reminded himself to make more of an effort to sound something akin to his normal self. He had to stay focused and concentrated, if he ever wanted to make any sort of headway in this case.

"Ya got anythin' on 'im?" Hattori's voice brought Conan out of his thoughts. The boy was inwardly grateful that the teen detective had not called to attention the weariness that was so evidently present in his voice.

"Not really," the mini tantei rested his head in his hand for a moment, absently staring into space, "We've got some fibers, probably from the culprit's car, but without anything to compare them to, they're practically useless for now. And according to the old man, a small amount of black sand was left behind at almost every crime scene..."

"Wait!... He told ya all dat?!" Hattori interrupted him, suitably surprised. After all, the tanned teen was aware of how many brick walls Kogoro had erected just to keep Conan from the case.

A small chuckle escaped Conan before he answered, "After about half an hour of me annoying the man, I wheedled my way in. I got my fair share of noogies for it, but yeah, in the end he told me. Well, more like, he yelled it at me." Conan let out another sigh, this one caused by frustration rather than weariness, "I didn't find out as much as I'd hoped, to be honest. Though, the old man did confirm that the black spots in the crime scene photos were not a glitch in the technology. That's how we found it, by the way: a dark smudge on several crime scene photos. Those supposed smudges were a small amount of black sand left behind, in the vicinity of the body. Still..."

"'S not dat much ta go on, ne?" Hattori finished Conan's sentence.

"My thoughts exactly," the small detective agreed gravely.

"...But leavin' black sand behind is a bit weird... even fer dat creep's standards." the Osakan said, sounding quite puzzled.

In fact, Conan had thought about just that before he'd fallen asleep. Unfortunately though, the shrunken teen had been unable to find a suitable reason as to why such a thing would be left behind.

"There's nothing normal about this case," Conan sighed, raking a weary hand through his hair. He felt so damn exhausted. For a moment, Conan allowed himself to think back over the last couple of nights. His tendency to sleep a full night, undisturbed, was steadily decreasing, and with it, his ability to focus on the problem at hand. If this continued for much longer, he'd be the equivalent of a modern day zombie. He was already almost unable to form coherent thoughts as it was.

_Note to self: Need. To. Sleep..._

"Kudo..." Hattori interrupted his thoughts, and once more, Conan had to force himself to pay attention, "What 'bout you?" For some reason, his friend had sounded oddly hesitant.

"What do you mean?" Conan asked, unable to understand what his friend was trying to say.

"I mean, are ya a'right?" Hattori sounded a bit angry when that question came out, much more forceful than his usual tone of voice.

Conan frowned, confused, "Why wouldn't I be? Despite the fact that you called me in the middle of the night, I'm doing just peachy." There was the slightest hint of sarcasm towards the end of his sentence, but Hattori did not pick up on that. Either that, or he chose to purposely ignore it.

There was a slight pause before the tanned teen spoke again, and just as he did before, Hattori sounded strangely hesitant, "Dunno... Ya jus' sound off, is all." There was obviously more implied in that statement than Hattori was willing to let on.

Conan, of course, picked up on it right away. He could even feel a muscle in his jaw twitch as a result.

"Maybe that's because it's 2:35 in the morning." He said rather hastily, shooting a quick glance to the clock. It really was late. Or early, depending on how one looked at it.

For a few more heartbeats, the line stayed silent. Conan feared that Hattori had figured out that this case was starting to be more than he could handle. He tried to hide it, but this was hitting much too close to home. Admitting to nightmares seemed so childish. Not to mention, it could be seen as a weakness, one he was not willing to share with his friendly rival. It was too personal, and Conan never had been the type to get emotional in front of others.

A small laugh coming from the other end of the phone shook the mini-tantei out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout dat. It's just 'cause dat case has been on my mind." Hattori got really quiet again, before he continued in a more serious tone, "It's ALL over da news, ya know? Damn press even nicknamed da guy..."

"They what?!" Conan had to restrain himself from shouting, considering he was the only one awake for the moment.

"Nicknamed him," Hattori repeated slowly, probably just to get a reaction out of the smaller detective. "They're callin' 'im da Bogeyman of Tokyo. Ya know, 'cause of da kids? He's da monster dat none of da parents can see, but he's there and jus' takes da kids. Then, no one hears from 'em again... Well, until da police find 'em," the Osakan explained.

Tiredly, Conan passed a hand over his eyes. He'd suspected this day to come eventually. After all, it had only been a matter of time until some reporter cooked something up.

"Figures they'd do something like this sooner or later. Damn reporters," Conan all but spat into the phone. "What good would naming him be to the public? It'll only inflate the killer's ego! Most likely, this guy is desperate for attention as it is. They're giving him exactly what he wants!" the not-child growled in righteous anger. His frequent sleep disturbances caused his temper to flare much quicker than normal. It took a great deal of energy to keep his frustration from breaking out onto unsuspecting targets. To calm himself, the chibi tantei took several deep breaths, before directing his attention to his friend's own little verbal explosion.

"Whatta sick bastard! Can't wait ta see his sorry ass behind some heavy bars!"

"I know," Conan said after a few moments of reining his temper back in. Once again, he felt exhaustion creeping up his spine. He felt like being caught between two emotions: anger and exhaustion. And at the moment, exhaustion seemed to be winning. Wearily, he let his head drop back into his palm, leaning heavily on the table, before he continued to speak, "Me too. We need to stop him before he hurts any more kids..."

_Like Ayumi or any of the others..._

A cold shudder travelled through the small detective as his brain unwillingly recalled the image of his female friend. Even in the throes of that nightmare, his deductive mind had been working, if only on instinct alone. He'd seen the choking marks on her throat, and in that one moment, there had been only one conclusion. In that one, petrifying long moment, he'd honestly believed Ayumi to be dead. Those marks had just seemed too god-damn real. He'd just seen and instinctively known it. He suspected the sight to haunt him for weeks to come.

Determined, Conan shook his head, willing the images to retreat back into whatever hole they had escaped out of. It had only been a dream, after all. There was no need to worry about it anymore, as it had already passed. Ayumi was safely at home, and the killer only took children off the streets; he never broke into someone's house. Conan was desperately trying to rationalize some sort of explanation to simply calm his brain and avoid full-on paranoia.

"Uh, Kudo..." Hattori's voice filtered through the hazy jumble of Conan's thoughts. Strangely enough, the Osakan sounded almost nervous. Almost as if Hattori was internally debating whether or not to say something.

"What is it?" Conan asked tiredly, repressing a yawn.

"Ya... err... need ta take care o' yerself too, a'right?" Hattori said in a rush, as if he was having second thoughts after the first word left his mouth.

Conan, meanwhile, was stunned. Of all the people who regularly said that to him or some variation of it, he hadn't expected it from his friend. Of all people, Hattori knew just how capable Conan could be.

"I always d-" Conan started, a wry grin on his face.

"No! I'm serious, Kudo! Ya could be one o' dat creep's targets too. Ya might be smarter than 'is average prey, but dat doesn't mean he won't come after ya!" Hattori interrupted him adamantly, which caused the shrunken detective to fall silent. It was rare that Hattori talked in such a dead-serious voice, no pun intended. Usually, the guy would just waffle on about food, leaving him to read between the lines to understand what the Osakan really meant, but for him to fully express his feelings meant that he was truly worried. Now the true reason for this nocturnal call came into view. Whether he completely admitted it or not, Hattori was concerned.

_Meh...he's not the only one... not that I'm the one they should be worrying about..._

"I'll be fine-" he tried again, only to be interrupted once more.

"This ain't a joke, Kudo! I know ya like ta think dat yer invincible, but yer not. And ta dis maniac, yer jus' another kid!" the Osakan spoke gravely. Such a tone was used so rarely and exclusively on matters which really warranted such a level of seriousness.

Something about the true level of worry in his friend's voice caused the shrunken teen to smile a bit.

"All right, I get it, Hattori. I promise I'll watch my back," Conan said seriously and meant it. "But that doesn't mean, I'll leave this case alone," he added after a moment.

Conan grinned when he heard his counterpart laugh at the other end of the line. "Wouldn't 'ave expected anythin' less of ya," his friend said, still chuckling.

Their call ended shortly after. Closing the phone, Conan took another look at the clock above the door. It was almost three in the morning.

Sighing for the umpteenth time today, he stood up and returned to the shared room with Kogoro. The great Sleeping Sleuth had apparently changed positions several times while Conan had been out of the the room. Kogoro now lay in a limp, grotesque form sprawled on his bed, tangled in his own sheets, still snoring loud enough to wake the dead. How the man could sleep like that was beyond Conan's understanding, but it served to cause another smile to surface.

_Well, I might as well try and sleep again... Maybe I'll get lucky, and tonight's quota for terror is filled... Maybe..._

* * *

*muahahahaha* Scared ya, didn't we?! *giggle* Well, we just thought a bit of terror might be nice for a change^^ We cooked this idea up about one week after Halloween, so we both were still in the appropriate frame of mind *giggle* Hope you don't murder us for it... Always remember, if you kill us, you'll never know how it will end up *laugh*

Like I said, credit goes to TWILIGHTreader1, whom I blame entirely for this little foray into terror and fear^^ Just kidding, sweetie, the idea was brilliant *hugs*

And for anyone finding spelling errors... That's impossible, my and my beta checked the chapter several times before I put it up... But I write things in British English, so if you're American, stuff is bound to look wrong *gg*


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Okay, folks, finally the 8th chapter is up and running! This was actually inspired by one of my reviewers, who requested a bit in Kogoro's point of view^^ And though I have to say that it was somewhat difficult to get into his mindset, I am relatively pleased with the result^^ It's also not so much a filler (as I'm sure some of you will think), but it was simply to explain what was happening to all the other people in Conan's vicinity^^ Kogoro just volunteered to be the scapegoat *gg* Thanks go as usual to my amazing beta, without whom I would not be able to write any of this anymore... She's now done with her finals and we pieced this together in an amazing three days (we actually counted!)... 

We still have the _"Send-Conan-To-Therapy"_ Fund open, and though I'd like to give you all a heads-up on how many cookies we managed to collect, I have to say, no one actually sent cyber-cookies^^ Right now, we feed him on our own supply... Always remember: Cookies make everything better! So be a nice person and send your donation of cyber-cookies now! We're slowly running out of supplies here^^

_And lastly, the most important thing:_

**Due to the shocking incident in Connecticut, my beta TWILIGHTreader1 and I would like to express how much that atrocity has saddened us. Someone killing children is unacceptable. When I started this fanfiction, I had no idea that something as terrible as that could ever happen.**

**That deranged, psychotic maniac should have been punished by something far worse than death at his own hands. And even though this story is about such murders of the worst kind imaginable, we do under _no circumstances_ condone what he did. After seeing the news it struck both me and my beta pretty hard, and it did not help that our story is about killing children as well. What has happened made this all too real and we could not help but feel saddened over it. We still do.**

**Finally, we sincerely hope that we will not offend anyone by continuing with this story. Rest assured, our murderer will face the full force of the law and he will pay for his crimes. Nothing he has done will be excused in any way.**

**To the families of those suffering from the losses of their loved ones we offer heart-felt condolences and will pray (each in our own fashion) that the souls of those lost will find eternal rest. **

**Sincerely yours, Caledonia1986 and TWILIGHTreader1  
**

* * *

**Thursday 16****th**** September 2011**

**Early evening**

_I wonder how long I'll be able to do this… _

Sighing, Kogoro took another sip from his half-empty beer can, vainly trying to suppress the feeling of guilt daring to overwhelm him. The sleuth sighed again, raking a weary hand through his graying hair. For a very long while, he just stared at his beer can, as if that little aluminum can held all the answers in the world.

The famous detective had just returned from the station where he had spent hours with Megure-keibu and the other officers, theorizing. They had exhausted most of the morning poring over data, and the great sleuth was now officially bordering on 30 hours without sleep. At this point, the man's eyes were bloodshot and his skin pale. Slowly but surely, this horrific killing spree had caught up to him; he was physically and emotionally drained. It wasn't only the fact that children were being murdered that set him on edge, but also that an entire city, including its police force, looked to him to put an end to this horror.

What made this so much different than all the other cases in his career was that he was no longer certain he would be able to solve it. There was so much riding on his shoulders that the weight seemed almost suffocating. He constantly thought about the case, and in the few minutes he was actually able to turn his mind to other matters, the images came back with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer on a watermelon. And those images were what ultimately got to him. There were so little clues, even with the police looking into every corner, that their chances of success were disappearing a little more each day.

Sitting in his desk chair, Kogoro refused to move even a muscle. He was just so damn tired and so worn out that even if he wanted to move, he sincerely doubted his body would obey him. Still staring at his beer can, the famous detective continued to think over the events of the past day, hoping for some kind of miracle. This killing spree and the culprit behind them were just too much for his mind to process. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to harm an innocent, sweet, little child. Children were defenseless; it was an adult's responsibility to look after them. From all the victims, children were always hardest to deal with. He felt like such actions crossed an invisible line of morals that should never be tampered with. He was old fashioned that way: murders happened between adults, while children were kept away from such violence. That was at least what he told himself, or else he would never sleep again.

With every day that passed, guilt drove itself deeper into his core. Guilt over children he had not been able to safe, faces and names of formerly cheerful kids, their lives lost at the hands of that cruel beast terrorizing the city. He managed to look confident enough for the benefit of the people around him, but when he was alone, he felt only guilt over his inability to catch that monster. Such a responsibility was weighing heavily on him, and with each child lost, another mark on his conscience appeared.

He'd poured over the crime scene photos and the reports countless times, and even now, he had a stack of documents in front of him. Though the sleuth felt that he was on the verge of collapsing from fatigue, Kogoro refused to permit himself the rest. Even if this resulted in him passing out over his work once again, he couldn't take a break. He had to find the terrible person behind all this before more children fell into that deranged maniac's clutches.

He had to stop him before a certain child found his way into the middle of disaster, as was so often the case. The older sleuth tried to keep the kid away from the case, but that idiot freeloader would find a way to root through his files, just like he had done the other day.

Every time Kogoro closed his eyes, pictures of the lifeless bodies of those children would show up, immortalized by crime scene photography. It haunted him, day and night. The pictures of these dead children provided a constant reminder of his failures. Every day, he would try and redeem himself, but it was no use in the end. The images remained, stirring a feeling of vague terror and burning guilt in his heart. He would never admit it, but his family was the most important thing in his life, and it hurt him to no end that there were ten families that would never be whole again.

Even now, every time he thought of the case, his stomach turned, and if he dared to think of the pain these children had doubtlessly endured, bile would rise until it burned in his throat. That was among the main reasons he drank himself stupid each and every evening. It allowed his brain to shut down long enough to let him get some sleep. There were nights though, that not even alcohol could numb the pain and anger he felt. Those were the nights he suffered the most, both as a father and as a former law enforcement officer sworn to uphold the law and protect the people. In the end, his only shot at peace was to find the killer and bring him to justice.

He'd spent hours with the rest of the police force talking about possible angles they could take, things they could still investigate, but the hard truth was that there was no place left to go. Even the black sand which had seemed so promising in the beginning was turning out to be a dead end. Not to mention that the duty of guarding the children was proving to be even less achievable. They couldn't possibly keep all the children within Tokyo off the streets, even though that was proposed by several officers. Truthfully, it was a tempting suggestion; one Kogoro was more than ready to agree to, which of course had absolutely nothing to do with a certain seven year-old in his care.

Kogoro remained where he was, slowly spinning the beer can on the table-top, with his weary and burning eyes staring straight ahead. His mind kept going over details, evidence, witness reports, _anything_ that might help catch this killer. The police and the independent sleuth had their hands tied in several places, which only served to fuel the anger. The great detective wanted to act, even if it meant rounding up the army and search through every house in Tokyo and its general vicinity to find this guy. He was willing to break the law in order to catch the monster preying on these innocent children. Then, everyone would be safe; no more children would die. At least, that's how he justified such barbaric extremes.

The cops had initially thought to stake out every school in the general area of Tokyo, but they simply lacked the manpower to do so. Yet another reminder of how limited their resources truly were.

One of the biggest dilemmas they faced was that they didn't know just how the killer picked his victims, and so had no idea which kids to single out. It was like getting lost in a foreign city and trying to find your way home blindfolded; in other words: a useless effort. Closing the schools would result in panic. Not to mention that lots of kids would be unsupervised, if their parents would not be able to stay at home and look after them. Unsupervised children often caused more trouble.

"Unsupervised children, hm?" Kogoro chuckled without a hint of humour, before sighing again.

_Oh, what trouble they cause… _

The look on his face was that of a man reminiscing. At first, it looked almost nostalgic, before his face twisted into a grimace of pain that barely concealed worry. Forcing himself to stop thinking of that particular child, Kogoro returned his mind back to the present.

Wordlessly, the detective reached for a pile of folders, looking through them again, even though he'd most likely memorized their contents already. He just needed something to busy his mind, before the worry would grow large enough to prevent further thought. He revisited statements of witnesses, crime scene accounts, and victims' personal histories. He took another swing of his beer before moving on to the crime scene photos. Some things he just couldn't bear to see on a sober mind anymore.

Absently, he picked a photo, and for a brief moment, a mere fraction of a second, he saw a different child's face. A face with dark hair and huge glasses; the normally insatiably curious gaze dulled in death's dread embrace. He almost dropped his beer in shock. The sleuth managed to shove the can to the nearest open surface on his desk, before risking another look at the picture. He needed reassurance that his eyes were merely playing tricks with his mind; that his overwrought brain had simply thought that dreadful scene up. Considering the death grip he clasped the picture with, it was a miracle that the paper did not rip. And of course, the moment his eyes scanned the dead boy's face, the illusion disappeared and that certain child's face vanished. _Conan's_ face vanished. Once again, it was Enode Katsuro that was shown in the picture.

"Kuso!" Cursing thus, Kogoro shoved the picture aside, dropping his head into his cupped palms while his elbows rested on the desk.

"I hate it when that happens…" he all but growled. He ran both his hands through his hair, before tiredly rubbing his face with one hand while fumbling for a cigarette with the other.

Truth be told, often when he looked at those photographs for too long or thought about the case too intensely, his thoughts would stray to the boy in his care. Kogoro would, apparently, have to give up on thinking all together at this point, since all his thoughts would be centered on one specific little boy. Of course, it had not escaped his notice that Conan was the same age as the murdered kids and could, therefore, be a target, especially considering that the boy had a talent for trouble. It also hadn't escaped him that the boy, besides having danger following him like an errant puppy, was now almost begging to be included into the investigation. Not that Kogoro would permit that, of course.

The sleuth fidgeted with the cigarette in his hand. He was not really smoking it; he simply needed something to busy himself with, in order to let his mind concentrate on something mundane and trivial. It was better than pacing. He often did that nowadays also. It seemed like the more he tried, the lesser Kogoro could succeed in keeping his private life separate from his work, especially considering Conan. The freeloader might not be his kid, but the last thing he ever wanted was to bury the little tyke before his time.

Kogoro didn't know what a kid that age could have possibly done to piss off the gods, but it had to be pretty bad for the Shinigami to follow Conan around so persistently. At the thought of how often that boy ended up in trouble or got hurt because of some case, the sleuth shivered uncomfortably.

Shuddering, Kogoro remembered the call from the hospital so long ago. At first, he had believed it to be some minor injury, but he could have sworn his heart stopped when he heard the boy had been shot. How the hell a 7 year-old managed to end up in such trouble to warrant a bullet was beyond his understanding. When he had heard the doctor calmly explain how badly Conan had been injured, it was enough to haunt him for months to come. Simply thinking back on that day was almost too much for Kogoro. Just remembering the way the kid's almost lifeless body had been wheeled past dug up too many fears he usually preferred to leave buried.

When thinking about the many hospital visits in which Conan had been the patient, the older detective reminded himself once again what a severe lack of self-preservation the kid sported. It didn't exactly help that no matter how hard he tried, or how often he yelled at the kid, Conan would always find a way to sneak into case materials, even after he had been physically removed several times. Just the thought of Conan getting killed by someone was enough to make him feel sick.

The famous detective didn't know what bothered him more: the thought of Conan dying or the fact that he was admitting to himself that he actually cared about that nosy brat. That thought at least managed to draw a half-hearted smirk from Kogoro.

_Having a son might be nice…_

The tired man turned away from the desk; he couldn't concentrate long enough to be of any use to the investigation, not when the four-eyed kid took up such extensive residence in his mind. And yet, he felt at least comforted with the knowledge that while he couldn't protect all the children in Tokyo, he could at least protect one of them.

It wasn't something he'd ever shared with anybody, but over the months Conan had stayed with him and his daughter, he became fond of the curious boy, so much so that now he almost reckoned him a second child. Not that he'd ever say that out loud, let alone tell the kid. He still had his pride after all.

Kogoro stared at the office door for a while; his heavy eyes gazing more inwards. To any outside observer, it would have looked obvious that the detective was in deep thought. Along the way, the sleuth had ditched his cigarette and reached for his beer again. Taking another sip, he let his thoughts wander.

Over the course of this case, he'd worried that one day Conan would end up on the target list; that the boy would vanish, leaving behind no trace, only to turn up dead a good week later. The old sleuth tensed at that horrific thought, and his hand squeezed the can involuntarily until the rest of its contents were spilled over his desk. Not that there was much left to begin with, but the stain was still sizable enough. Completely ignoring the mess, Kogoro actually threw the can across the room in a sudden fit of anger. Gritting his teeth, the man cursed once more.

The famous sleeping detective couldn't stand the thought of that little ankle-biter turning up dead. Somehow it seemed wrong on so many levels. He also knew that if that eventuality ever came to pass, Ran would be crushed underneath a mountain of grief, since his daughter had pretty much adopted the kid as her little brother long ago. More than likely, Kogoro would not be far behind his daughter's grief. These _what-if_ situations proved to be too much for his heart already. He didn't dare think too closely on that particular subject.

He tried to keep Conan away from this case, but nonetheless, he recognized it for the fruitless effort it really was. By now, the news was full of reports about the children. Not to mention, he might have known those kids. And if not he, maybe one of his friends had known them. Chances for getting Conan to back off the subject were almost non-existent by now.

Kogoro knew how Conan got during a case; the boy was always too invested, too interested for his own good. And, if he wasn't off trying to catch the bad guy, the child would be shielding someone else from harm.

_He always was like that… as if he thinks he needs to protect the world…_

The older detective had noticed the weight Conan placed on his own shoulders a long time ago. He always seemed to feel responsible for everything and everyone around him. But just for once, Kogoro wanted to take that weight off and carry it himself. No child that young should be burdened with such responsibilities. But from the look in Conan's eyes, he knew that the boy was used to it and would have it no other way. That reminded Kogoro; he needed to have a long talk with Conan's parents when this whole mess was over. No matter how he looked at it, no child would willingly act that mature. Not even Shinichi had done so at this age. Something must have happened to push such an extreme behaviour onto that child. Not to mention how paranoid and jumpy Conan was at times.

The old man sighed. There were so many things wrong with that kid.

Kogoro managed to quell his anger enough to think rationally, but the only thing that kept going through his mind was that he had to keep that boy safe, even if it was the last thing he did. Not only did this killing spree continue to worry the great detective, he had also seen how it affected Conan.

The kid's already sporadic appetite had all but vanished since the killings began. From what Kogoro observed, the boy didn't stomach much more than what would keep a sparrow alive. Most of the time, he would just pick at his food half-heartedly. It bothered the old man to see the boy so lethargic; it was just not like him. What made it worse was that Conan started to look sick. His skin was much paler, and he seemed thinner by a great deal. He'd hoped that by keeping Conan off the case, he could somehow give the kid permission to be just that: a kid.

"Fat load of good that did…" the old man hissed testily. He was recalling the evening he had all but wanted to clobber the kid for going through his files. Granted, it had been Conan who spotted that sand, but that had only made the older detective angrier. He wanted Conan off the case, period. Therefore finding Conan in the middle of his crime scene photographs only served to fuel the fire, especially since those were images that would have most children screaming in horror and suffering nightmares for the rest of their lives. At this point, the sleuth would have given money to get Conan off the case.

Kogoro had also observed that Conan seemed sort of skittish and irritable, even more so than usual, given the boy's standards. A few days ago, Conan had actually snapped at him. He hadn't been throwing a tantrum; he'd just snapped. It was more akin to something a man would do when under too much pressure. At the moment, he couldn't recall the subject of the brief conversation. He only remembered that the boy had let his frustration out on the older detective. It was a somewhat unsettling thing to witness in the usually so controlled boy. _Controlled_ wasn't even the right word to describe his charge.

The kid had an uncanny ability to compartmentalize, better than any cop Kogoro had ever encountered, but somehow this case seemed to push him over the edge. Not that Kogoro could blame the kid; this case was hard on everyone. There was just something about killing a child that pushed everyone's buttons in every different way.

Of course, Conan had apologized later, but it was still almost heart-wrenching to see that boy so distraught that he could no longer control his emotions. After that little instance, Kogoro had kept an even closer watch over the boy.

What bothered the old man even more was that Conan seemed completely introverted. Not that the kid was known to be outgoing or noisy to begin with, but he had always been inquisitive. Conan always had something to say or a question to ask. As a rule, the boy only spoke when he felt the need to, but lately Conan had been even more withdrawn than usual, especially considering those nightmares Kogoro knew the boy had. Conan shut himself off from everyone, even more than normal. These days, the kid even refused to confide in his surrogate sister. Therefore, Ran was kept in the dark by Conan, just as he was.

Those nightmares were a real cause for legitimate concern. Approximately every night, Conan would wake up drenched in sweat, almost to the point of screaming. It must have taken a great deal of self-control not to do so, especially considering the look of terror on the child's face. Afterwards, the kid would forgo sleep altogether. Some nights, when he came home late, Kogoro would walk in to see a very disturbed child. Conan would be tossing and turning on his futon, quietly mumbling, with the most tortured look on his face. Often, when this had happened, Kogoro had contemplated simply placing a hand on Conan's shoulder. It had helped when Ran had experienced nightmares, but something restrained him from doing so. He knew that Conan was a light sleeper, and only the gods could foresee how the kid would react to someone stooping over him when he woke up from a nightmare. Chances were the results would not be good. Kogoro just hoped he would be able to figure out a way to make the kid talk about all of this, preferably before it was too late.

"Can't be healthy for a kid his age…," Kogoro mumbled quietly, "If only he'd open up to someone…"

Kogoro really wanted to know what was scaring Conan so much that the boy gave up on sleeping. Usually nothing disturbed the boy's sleep. He'd spent nights in the same room with a corpse before, without even batting an eye. Whatever it was that the kid saw in his nightmares, Kogoro had a feeling that everything the older sleuth had experienced would be a piece of cake by comparison.

If he only knew what it was Conan had nightmares about, perhaps then he could figure out a way to help the kid without letting the boy catch on to his intentions. Kogoro could be subtle, but only if the situation deemed such actions appropriate. This was one such instance.

Taking a deep breath, the older sleuth sank lower into his chair to think things through. It was almost painfully obvious that this case somehow affected Conan. It pushed his emotional buttons, so to speak, enough to give him nightmares. It could be that he dreamed he got injured or killed, but Kogoro doubted the boy could be that selfish. It seemed more plausible that it wasn't himself the kid was worrying about, but most likely it had to do with his friends, who also happened to be the same age as the other victims.

Considering his track record, it was far more appropriate to insinuate that the kid had no instincts of self-preservation at all. Conan also didn't seem to understand just how small he was. It was as if the kid could not comprehend the fact that he was almost small enough to walk comfortably underneath a table.

To busy himself with something, Kogoro, shaking his head, heaved himself out of his chair and went into the mini-kitchen in order to get some paper towels to clean the beer stain he'd left earlier. Last thing he needed was for one of the files to reek of beer. After grabbing a roll of paper towels, Kogoro stopped at the fridge, contemplating another beer. He stood there for a good minute, before he convinced himself that something much stronger was in order now. Walking out of the kitchenette, he headed for the liquor cabinet with determination in his steps. If he wanted to get drunk enough to sleep, he needed something a lot stronger than beer.

Grabbing the first bottle that came in sight, he stalked back to his desk again. Ripping some paper towels, he managed to get most of the mess cleaned up relatively fast, before plopping back into his chair. Shoving the folders aside, Kogoro unscrewed the lid and took a big gulp. At least, he had managed to grab hold of the strongest stuff in the house. Given his already inebriated state, he'd be drunk out of his skull in a matter of minutes. Meaning, he wouldn't have to think about this damn case anymore for at least a few hours.

The old man took two more big draughts of Brandy before placing the bottle back on his desk. Given how quickly the alcohol reacted with his body, it bordered on miraculous that he managed to screw the lid shut again.

Even though he was trying to drown himself in alcohol in order to avoid thinking about the case or the boy in his care, his mind had different intentions. His plan on getting drunk was apparently not working fast enough.

* * *

**Friday 17****th**** September 2011**

**Morning**

It was interesting to perceive how little all these people around him actually knew. He could literally walk into a random café in the middle of Tokyo and have a cup of tea with none of them having even an inkling of who he was. They had no idea, and it amused him to no end.

He actually had to restrain himself from laughing outright at such cluelessness. All these people around him: the waiter that had brought his tea, the businesswoman to his right. They all were oblivious to the fact that the "dreaded" serial killer was right among them. All the while, he was calmly drinking Oolong-tea and watched their every move from the corner of his eyes. This had quickly become a game to him. He enjoyed the chase, but the hunt was what ultimately entertained him the most. Taunting the cops was just an added bonus to his already peaking fun.

After taking another sip from his tea, the man smiled deviously.

_As I predicted from the start, my brilliance will always outshine their feeble and useless minds…_

Now all that was needed was a little acting. He just had to pretend to be one of the citizens of the city, who was also worried about these horrific, terrible atrocities. The man could barely restrain an annoyed eye-roll. He could care less what these idiots thought, but at the moment, he needed to blend in. Everyone was none the wiser about his true intentions, just as he had foreseen.

From all this glorious enjoyment, what satisfied this hungry predator most was how no one could ever forget what he had done to the grand city of Tokyo. Generations after his lifespan, people would still speak of this terror, of the legacy he left behind for the world. They would remember all the fear and terror he had caused; the pain he had inflicted. This satisfied him the most.

Nature had granted him the gift of unobtrusiveness: he had no distinctive features at all. He looked like almost everyone here. To assimilate even more, he had carefully selected his clothing to blend in with the masses around him. It allowed the murderer to hide in plain sight.

For the past few minutes, he had entertained himself with reading newspaper articles about his achievements. He silently gloated over the note of panic he could feel leaking from various reporters, and internally, he laughed at the feeble attempts done by the police to reassure a public that was already teetering on the brink of outright panic. The city was only a slight twitch away from having a curfew issued on all of the children, simply to keep them from his reach. Not that it would benefit them in the slightest. Children, by their very nature, were bound to disobey such an order.

He could already feel himself becoming restless. The desire to hear a child keening in terror once more was driving the sadistic murderer wild with excitement. His body was tingling all over while he thought about his last prey. That one had been exceptionally delightful, especially since he enjoyed the results of some new _techniques_ he had tried.

Another smile twitched on his lips behind the newspaper; he was confident to get an even better result with a new playmate. It thrilled him to see a child squirm and panic at his hands. It had been barely a week since he disposed of that child, but his nerve-endings had already dulled. He missed the rush of excitement, the gratification he received from seeing the light in their eyes flicker and vanish. It was time to find the next one. Not that he really minded the search; it was all part of the game. If he could have it his way, he'd have a child each and every day.

The bell at the café's door dinged a few times as it was being opened. It jolted the killer out of his delusional desires, alerting him to the presence of two newcomers. It took him but one glance to know precisely who they were. The woman was dressed in a blue combination of a skirt and blazer, while the man wore a simple, brown, somewhat cheap suit. The way they threw a quick glance through the room, more out of habit than anything else, told the murderer all he needed to know.

_Police…_

Confident in his abilities, the sadistic killer did not even bat an eye at the close proximity of law enforcement officers. He actually welcomed the challenge. With a twisted smile plastered across his face, he leaned back to observe as unobtrusively as he knew how.

_Well, it seems as if the game just became more interesting…_

It was one thing to hide in plain sight from any common man, but police officers were specially trained to spot people like him. The addition of more players on his game board made his current diversion of hide-and-go-seek that much more stimulating. Then again, he didn't expect to actually get caught. He was much too good at hiding himself from their glances.

As the man's gaze returned to the front, the killer observed smugly from behind his newspaper.

_They have no idea… Absolute idiots, as I suspected…_

The current situation only served to boost his already over-sized ego, because now he could boast that not even trained observers were aware they were in the same room as the "Bogeyman of Tokyo", as the press had so luridly named him.

Suppressing a grin while innocently taking a sip of his tea, the malevolent man cast careful glances their way. The old saying proclaimed that one should _'know thy enemy'_. Therefore, that was what he intended to do, not that two police officers really imposed much of a threat to him. It was still better to see than to be seen.

Judging from the not so hidden looks the man threw at the woman, he seemed to have a thing for her. He always seemed to avert his eyes and blush like a complete moron whenever she looked back. The smile on the woman's face, in turn, showed that she seemed to reciprocate the emotion.

_Fraternizing cops… How sickening…_

Nonetheless, he continued to watch them, taking care not to be too conspicuous about it. The killer was more than confident in his ability to remain unseen, but there was no harm in being careful.

As he looked on, they ordered coffee, apparently glad for the rejuvenating effect of the beverage. More than likely, they had exhausted the night in the pursuit of finding him. This time the murderer had a hard time not chuckling amusedly behind the cover of his newspaper. All they needed was to turn around, and they would be staring into the face of the man holding the city under siege. The man they had so diligently, but unsuccessfully, gone after.

As he expected, they were too stupid, just as the bumbling fools they were, to acknowledge his presence. Seeing that the cops moved towards the door, his eyes followed them as they headed outside. Suddenly, his focus shifted as four children appeared in his field of vision, hastening along the street. The psychotic man was filled with sick joy, since he noticed the children would pass right by the window he was seated at, if they continued in that pace. They would walk right past him, so innocently clueless.

_How delightful… These little angels even seem to be_ _the appropriate age…_

Faintly, he could hear a weak voice in his head remonstrating him for his desire to take another child into the Dreamland. That voice was soon silenced by his own, stronger voice.

_**YOU**__ have no say in the matter… I'm in charge now…_

At such a sickening thought of not capturing his angel, the man's mouth twisted into a grimace of disapproval. The voice of the weakling that was his former self retreated and grew quiet, allowing him to direct his attention back to the kids.

Apparently, they failed to notice the two adults walking out the door with their coffee in hand, because they nearly bowled them over. The slowest child, a big, burly fellow, managed to stop mere centimeters before running into the woman, but such luck proved to be useless. The killer could plainly see annoyance rising on the brow of the female. She took a breath, but not to calm herself. It was to sternly reprimand the children for their carelessness.

It had not escaped his notice that both officers seemed to be on edge, since such a small NON-incident was able to push her to such extreme measures. Most likely, it was an after-effect of being exposed to his might for a while. This only served to excite the man behind the newspaper, seeing as there could only be one cause for their foul moods this early in the day. His smirk only grew with pride at such a thought.

"Tsubaraya Mitsuhiko! Yoshida Ayumi! Kojima Genta! Edogawa Conan! You need to watch where you are going!" The female was on a full-on rampage by now, "Imagine what would have happened if…" The murderer was quickly bored by her uselessly long tirade and no longer saw the need to pay attention.

All he could process was the fact that fate seemed to be on his side this morning, for there, right in front of him, was his next prey. Correct age, if his instincts served well, and from the looks of it, capable of some good, lovely screaming.

The man watched as the kids bowed to the police officers before scrambling off. Thank the gods for the newspaper in front of him, because he could no longer hide the ecstasy that was rapidly flooding through his body and showing on his face. He no longer bothered to hide it. His mouth twisted in a sick maniacal grin that dared to split his face in two. His lips rose and revealed teeth, making him resemble a hungry beast even more.

_Absolutely perfect… _

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**_If you like, leave a review^^ If you wish to donate to the therapy-fund, leave a cyber-cookie with your review... In any case, tell us what you think of it^^  
_**

_**And Happy New Year to everyone! **  
_


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Okay, here is chapter 9! We'd actually worked on that before thinking up chapter 8, so it was almost done^^ We just knocked it into a shape that we both like *gg* 

Special Thanks go to crimsonskyr, who actually drew a cover for this fanfiction... I am still completely blown away by that and also very proud. Someone actually took the time to draw something inspired by one of my stories! I am still amazed by that. So thank you very much, crimsonskyr and with your permission I'll post the link to the picture in the next chapter^^ again, me and my beta totally like it *gg* Its awesome^^

** Special Warning: This chapter deals with the inner workings of Serial Killers and may not be suitable for everyone to read! Proceed at your own risk! I would also like to say that these are not the views of the author, and were researched carefully over a time frame of several months with sources such as the local library and even the FBI Homepage (yes, there is such a thing as a homepage for the FBI and I found the bulk of my research on there^^). So all of the psychology in here is actually accurate, at least as far as Serial Killers go. As I have said, read at your own risk! You have been warned. **

And, as a finishing note, I would like to thank all of you for your generous donations of cyber-cookies, the chibi looks much better fed now^^ But don't let that stop you, we are still running the "Send-Conan-to-therapy- fund" and if you should wish to donate, feel free to do so with your review.

And now, enjoy the show!

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**Tuesday, 21th September 2011**

**Afternoon**

Conan had told Ran he'd be doing his homework at Professor Agasa's house, but in truth, he only wanted to go to his old house. He needed some time away to think without being bothered or having to explain himself. Also, he finally wanted to finish the psychology profile he had started and his library presented him with a myriad of sources to draw from.

Research was always a hassle; as a rule there were way too many books and too much paperwork to deal with. As a result, Conan always made a mess of his surroundings. His mind could work as analytically as he was used to, but as soon as paperwork got in the way, the paper-tornado struck and left his immediate surroundings in a state of complete upheaval. He would try to keep it clean, but failed every time. Therefore, he proceeded to ignore it, because as long as the system worked, he wasn't going to change it.

Scattered all over his desk he had four very thick books on psychology, his notebook, several sheets of paper he jotted on and Mitsuhiko's research, which consisted of about twenty printed pages, almost every inch of which was either marked with a highlighter or covered in his notes. Conan consumed himself with the information he had gathered, trying to deduce either motivation or personality of the killer.

Conan thought that if he would be able to sneak into the killer's mind, he would be able to predict possible future movements. He hoped that some sort of revelation would come out of this in the end. Whether it was the reason behind the black sand or the original motivation behind the killings, Conan did not care.

Understanding the culprit and his motivation for killing children seemed like the only course to take at this point. It was either this or sneaking into crime scenes again. Since he was not willing to take a chance and get caught, Conan braved the daunting task of trying to figure this guy out. Most likely the police had several experts working on a similar profile for the killer, but since Conan wasn't allowed to participate in the investigation, he had to do one himself. This unfortunately, was no easy task, especially considering how little evidence he had gathered so far. What made his project even harder was the killers own complexity, which had lead to him sitting in the same spot for the past hour, idly twirling a pencil, with almost nothing to show for it.

He knew that every killer had a reason; there was always some motive behind taking the life of another. As idiotic, shallow and egotistical those usually got, there was always some purpose behind it all, even if no one but the killer could understand it. But for some reason, this one was different. Conan could see that he was definitely no ordinary perpetrator. The man was everything but a cliché. There was nothing of the usual motive in this murderer. He simply needed to kill, most likely because he enjoyed it. It was at that point where the usual abilities and experiences of a detective needed to be backed up by more psychology than usual to understand the killer.

The shrunken tantei had spent hours reading through paragraphs about the behavioural traits in Serial Killers and Conan's goal was to transfer as many characteristics he could find to this killer. Mitsuhiko had been right it was interestingly bizarre and researching such information was intriguing, on a disturbing level. Serial Killers operated differently than the average murderer, which made them sometimes harder to catch. To Conan, this meant he had to work harder. There was no such thing as an unsolvable crime. This killer would slip sooner or later and that was when he could catch him. There was always only one truth and Conan's job was to find it.

After another hour of flipping through pages and scribbling down notes, Conan was drawing a pretty informative picture. The lack of concrete evidence like hair, saliva, blood or skin pointed to someone very cautious in general. This man took great pains to leave nothing behind. In Conan's opinion, this pointed to someone very methodical. It was like the killer knew exactly what the police would be looking for and took according precautions. Sure, there was the typical avoidance of fingerprints, but the fact that the officers who had scoured the scene could not find one shred of evidence indicated someone systematic, meticulous and very methodical. Based on that knowledge, it was safe to assume that the killer was a man of higher intelligence. He seemed to possess a wide array of knowledge, starting with anatomy and stretching all the way to forensics.

As disturbing as it was, he knew exactly how to keep his victims alive for an extended period of time. This man, whoever he was, knew exactly how much force to apply and where to apply it.

He acted with such extreme precision that the victim would be completely under that sadistic killer's control. Thinking about it, it was not such an uncommon thing about murderers; or about Serial Killers in general. They liked to control their environment to the point of becoming obsessive about it, often becoming irritated if they can't. Most likely this guy was a megalomaniac, meaning that he has an unrealistic belief in his superiority, grandiose abilities and even omnipotence. Such a personality would be categorized by an excessive need of total power and control over others, and would be marked by a lack of empathy for anything that is not directly self-gratifying. This most likely was combined with a narcissistic personality. This whole thing was about being the superior person, even over a child. With each kill, his ego would only inflate further.

Also, the signs of ever worse violence inflicted upon the kids pointed to him becoming more cruel with each child he took. To demonstrate his power and authority he needed it that way. The killer ultimately determined when the victim would die. He had power over life and death at that moment which he displayed by keeping the children alive for as long as he chose. From the reports Conan had managed to take a sneaking peek at, the M.E. had estimated a rough time frame of about 72 hours.

The killer also seemed to know about basic psychology, since he knew how to create an atmosphere of panic in the city. From what Conan had been able to deduce about his personality, this was most likely done on purpose. Not to mention the lack of concrete evidence, which would put any investigator on edge. This of course, was likely all part of the thrill to the killer. That feeling of overconfidence because his movements remained undetected, most likely increased his mental superiority over someone else. In a way, it was very similar to Ted Bundy, the notorious American Serial Killer, who had killed at least 28 young women. That had been one killer that had loved to rile law enforcement.

"Perhaps our guy has a similar mindset..." Conan mumbled to himself, thinking of all the possible implications behind such a way of thinking.

If the killer they dealt with at the moment indeed had a similar mindset as Ted Bundy, it only seemed to confirm Conan's earlier assumption: Their killer was a narcissist. This was honestly good news for Conan, because a person with a narcissistic personality disorder couldn't help but stretch his boundaries. He basically saw himself as invincible. Therefore, he would not be able to resist the temptation of leaving something behind on purpose, enabling the police to distinguish his work from any other killer. He wanted to be acknowledged for the havoc he wreaked. Generally something like that would be labelled a "Calling Card," almost everyone with a disorder like that couldn't help but leave behind some sort of clue. That pile of black sand seemed like a good place to start for further inquiries in the future.

Another distinguishing feature was that killers often kept souvenirs. Though a lot of killers actually did something like that, it was a most prominent feature in Serial Killers, to further enforce their belief in having complete control over the victim. These souvenirs would become a collection as more and more people were killed. Each item represented the kill itself, allowing the murderer to relive what he had done. It was like living the experience again. For rapists for instance, these items allowed them to relive the deed itself and get aroused by it. For others, these souvenirs could be badges, rewarding them for their accomplishments. For Serial Killers operating out of a desire to control, these were probably to have visible proof of their dominance. Each killer used them for different reasons. These items could be anything, a personal item, an ID card, a piece of jewellery, a strand of hair. Conan had read about one that kept the house keys of the victim, because that killer was obsessed about locks and the mechanism of unlocking. Also, that killer had used a key as an accessory to the murder weapon. Shaking his head, the mini-tantei concentrated on the present killer again.

In this case, it was a little more difficult; because it could not clearly be determined that anything had been taken from the kids. Conan thought through each murder this monster had committed, but could not pin-point an object that had been taken. Children didn't really carry much with them to begin with.

"Some have their house keys with them if their parents don't pick them up, but..." Conan kept thinking of an object children would most likely carry with them. It wasn't that simple, because he couldn't think of an object that they all had in common that had turned up missing. At that age, a child would be known by his or her toy, but some were picked either on the way to or from school, there was no need for them to carry a toy with them.

_Maybe nothing was taken in the first place... _

Conan raked a hand through his hair in frustration. The more answers he would come closer to, the more questions would arise. He'd thought by doing this, he would get some sort of clue that would set him upon the culprits track, but so far he'd been out of luck.

Also because Conan could find no real motive, like revenge or spite, he labelled this killer among the psychologically motivated ones, which basically meant that the motive for killing was something immaterial, something that only held worth to the killer alone, but was insignificant to someone else. It was something that only existed in the murderers head. There had to be something that drove him to kill. Conan wanted to know what had triggered this guy into killing the first child. If he could figure that out, he'd have better understanding of who this person was and how he operated.

Once again the shrunken sleuth returned to the need for control that was so often present in murder cases, even more so in Serial Murders. That specific drive ranked pretty high on the list of possibilities for killing.

_But why a child then? _

For a killer that thrived on dominance over others, it was odd to take the smallest version of a human and dominate that. Perhaps the original reason had something to do with children.

The method of ultimately killing the victim via strangulation after having kept it alive for a set amount of time strongly pointed towards the direction of dominance. After all, when strangling someone, the killer had to be close to the victim. When one used a gun or a knife, it was always some tool to provide distance, but this killer apparently strangled the children using his bare hands which negated such a weapon barrier. It also put him in close proximity, most likely, directly in front of the victim, since the worst choking marks were at the throat and not the neck. Strangulation was a much more personal method of killing someone, since the killer had to get up close and personal to the victim, especially since it was manual strangulation. A gun would be more impersonal for instance. Killing up close, this murderer was receiving something he needed psychologically. It might be possible that it made the killer feel some kind of connection to the victim, not that they had to know each other. These kinds of crimes were all about: _'What does the killer need?'_ It was all about him and his needs. For someone killing out of the original drive to control, strangling would have been the preferred method.

Also, in favour of that theory was the way he disposed of the victims in the end. He'd left them fully clothed, still tied up and stuffed in plain black trash bags. It could mean the killer denied his victims any dignity, even in death. He controlled the way they died; he also controlled the way they were found. While reading, Conan came across a case from the United States, where a Serial Killer had cleaned the bodies of his victims, dressed them in fancy clothing, even going so far as arranging their hair and make-up. This guy was the exact opposite. He did not care how his victims looked after they had fulfilled their usefulness.

And yet he took extreme care to not let the victim die before those three days were up. That could also be construed as another way of control; the shrunken sleuth simply had no idea why that was. It was risky to keep a victim alive for a fixed amount of time after all.

"Why was that? What is it about those 72 hours that holds so much appeal to this guy?" Conan pondered, leaning back in his chair, absently resting his chin lightly on his hand. At that moment, if someone were to walk in on him, it was highly unlikely he would even realize it. He was firmly locked in his own brain, hoping to come to some breakthrough, completely ignoring the world around him.

Those were not the only questions that haunted the mini-tantei's mind. He was also bothered by things like the killers compulsion to target only children of a specific age (but not a specific gender), his reason for keeping them alive and if it was really the urge to control that drove him to do so. Strangling them right away should have been equally satisfying to the killer. Conan actually shuddered that that particular thought. By now, his mind was at least going 500 miles a minute.

Why did he beat them? Why these kids in particular? What made these kids special? How did he pick the victims? And what about the locations he left the bodies in: were they picked at random?

Conan wanted answers, craved them even, but all he ended up with was more questions.

The degree of violence involved made him uneasy as well. While physical violence was a common way to exert control, there seemed to be an unusual amount of it involved. Perhaps it was rage over some wrongdoing (actual or supposed) that led him to show such cruelty; or perhaps it only intensified the thrill for this guy. Some killers liked to see their victims suffer; some even tortured them to satisfy such sick urges. But beating seemed like a rather archaic method of torture, there were more subtle ways to torture a person, so it probably was not actual torture.

However, there was one thing that could be safely crossed out, for which Conan was devoutly grateful. None of the kids had been sexually assaulted. At least the kids were spared that particular agony. It wasn't as if the events that HAD transpired were any less traumatizing, but at least that could be crossed out. It also meant that whoever was behind the killings received no sexual gratification out of the kill itself. In most cases, there was something sexual involved in some form or other, but these kills were strictly for the purpose to give a non-sexual gratification, be it control or something else.

Another thing that piqued his interest; all the kids came out of the general vicinity of Tokyo; therefore it stood to reason the killer did so as well, or at least lived somewhere nearby. It could also mean that he lived somewhere else, but spent a lot of time in Tokyo, because he seemed to know his way around. After all, it simply made no sense whatsoever for such a careful individual to chance a longer car drive with either an unconscious child or a body in the car. The risk of being discovered was just too great.

And yet another thing that niggled at the back of the small detective's head was the fact that; over the last couple of months, the periods between killings had shortened by a fair amount. At the beginning, it was roughly one child per month, now it was almost one every two weeks. The fact that the time table drew ever closer together pointed to someone who definitely received some sort of gratification out of the killing itself. Over time, this gratification had built up to something that resembled an addiction almost. He needed the next killing, the pleasure he received was dulling and he would try to get his victims quicker. The actual thrill lessened, which caused him to need more and more victims to cope with that sort of addiction and the possible withdrawal symptoms. It also meant they had to catch him fast, before he got his claws into another child.

The good news however was that a Serial Killer suffering from such symptoms would get bolder, confident in his belief that he wouldn't get caught. Killers who believed that were bound to make mistakes, possibly giving them the evidence they needed to finally lay hands on him.

This killer would falter soon, and then the trap would snap shut, effectively trapping that monster.

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I know, I know, still no action, but such stuff needs to be properly explained and told, so that everyone has a rough idea of who this killer is and how his mind might work. The truth is still slightly different though... But Conan is not far off the mark here *gg* I also apologize for the shortness, but we didn't want even more input in this chapter... Feel free to guess what I mean by that *muahahaha*

Stay tuned for the next chapter, but that might take a bit of time stil, we have to work on that for a bit^^


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Dearest and most loyal Readers, once more I must apologize for the delay of this installment. Truth is, this chapter gave me and my beta some considerable headache while we puzzled over it. Add to that the fact that my ever so trusty beta started school again, we were incredibly delayed... So sorry for that... 

But now, finally we reach a culmination point of this story and I hope we have done justice to it^^ I apologize in advance for the ending of this chapter, but we saw absolutely no way to head around it... The chapter would have been too long in that case... So, we've decided to wait in uploading this chapter until we've made some headway in the next chappie (which is coming along nicely now) before putting it up to avoid you guys chewing your fingernails off in suspense... *gg*

Thanks again for the review-cybercookies we received, our little chibi looks way better now^^ I knew the cookies would do the trick *gg* 

And as a little bonus, I'll add crimsonskyr's dA- account on here, as I have promised last time. I'll link you directly to the page with the amazing fanart she did... Still overwhelmed by that, by the way *gg*Link: crimsonskyr . deviantart art / Detective-Conan-Sandman-346782520 (without the spaces of course ^^)

All that is left to say here, would be, enjoy this chapter and I trust that you'll leave a review^^ Thanks for sticking with this, you guys are DA BOMB!

Warning: This chapter contains coarse language! It's also more than possible that the coarselanguage will get worse as we continue with this... Don't blame us, our detectives are on the verge of snapping completely... Especially a certain shrunken one... Blame him, not us, we're only the voices for their actions *lol*

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**Tuesday 21st September 2011**

**Evening**

Conan hardly noticed how fast the time rushed past him, while he was thoroughly engaged upon his task. Writing down notes and deductions about the killer, he was so lost within his mind that he almost missed the buzzing of his cellphone, buried somewhere underneath the mountain of paperwork stacked on his desk. Well, it was stacked after all.

Blindly he reached for it, his eyes never leaving the page he currently read. He was too preoccupied to give the screen a glance. The shrunken sleuth simply flipped it open and absentmindedly answered it, without ever lifting his head out of the book he was currently reading. He had expected it to be Ran, as a hurried glance to the clock told him it was getting late. The sun would set in less than an hour and he was expected to be back before sundown. Instead of the female voice he was expecting to hear however, a decidedly amused Osakan drawl filled his ear and with it, his complete attention.

"Yer thinkin' about that case, aren't ya?"

"H-Hattori?! Why are you calling?!"

Surprised Conan looked at his phone, as if the device could actually tell him why his friend was calling. It always surprised Conan that Hattori always seemed to know what the faux child was doing. One would think that after such a long time of friendship, Conan would just come to expect it. But apparently the Osakan teen could still surprise the shrunken sleuth.

_Then again, Hattori can be pretty hard to read on occasion..._

"Aw, tha's cold, Kudo. Lemme guess... Ya were expectin' maybe... Neechan?" the tanned detective snickered audibly.

"T-That's because she usually calls around this time when I'm not home." Conan defended himself, deliberately ignoring how his cheeks grew warm. But his denial only caused the teen to laugh harder at the other end of the line. Thankfully the Osakan could not actually see him, or else he'd never hear the end of it. But he couldn't begrudge his friend the jibe.

Truth be told, he didn't mind the distraction.

While Conan usually hated it when someone interrupted him while he was thinking, in this case the distraction was a more than welcome one. He needed a mental break after spending almost the entire afternoon reading references after references about Serial Killers. If there was one thing the chibi-tantei knew with absolute clarity, it was that such would never become his preferred pastime. Reading through all that reminded him of the depravity that humans seemed to be capable of.

For the past few hours, Conan had delved deeply into the the minds of other Serial Killers in an attempt to understand their present killer. It was definitely not a task that reassured the mind, so much was for sure. After so many hours, the most he got out of it was a splitting headache and more questions he dared to list.

"Oy, are ya listenin'?!"

"Uh-huh..." was the only reply the teen got.

"Yer spacin' out again!" Hattori said, sounding vaguely annoyed.

Conan quickly pulled his straying thoughts back under control and pushed his notes a bit further away out of reach, only leaving his notebook in front of him.

_Really, he should be used to it by now…_

"Sorry Hattori. Its been a really long day." Conan paused for a moment before continuing, "I've been doing some research this afternoon; its kind of hard to shove that to the side, especially when you're being interrupted." He added that little bit purely out of spite, but the Osakan did not rise to the bait. Ignoring the jibe, the tanned teen merely carried on with the conversation.

_So much for a distraction from the killer.._

"So? Did ya find somethin' tha' would help us find tha' bastard?" the teen asked. Conan could practically envision him leaning forward in interest.

"There's not much to report Hattori." Conan admitted, "I've been trying to understand this whole Serial Killer thing in general. Not sure if this will really give us a clue, but since I think the police are doing something similar, I figured it couldn't hurt too much.

The shrunken tantei absently shuffled the papers and notes together, intending to call it a day. He had learned enough for one afternoon and it didn't seem the profile would yield much more for the time being. Not until he got new information anyhow.

"How 'bout tha' sand thing? Anythin' new?"

Hearing his friends question, Conan could not keep the sigh contained. He wished he had something to tell his friend, but there was just nothing.

"No. Unfortunately there's still nothing, at least not yet. There aren't that many shops selling black sand and the police apparently got samples from every store, in hopes they can narrow it down to one shop, but I haven't got much hope in that direction. Of course, its also entirely plausible that the killer had it custom made somewhere or simply wore a disguise when he bought it, which would be bad news for us. On the bright side however, I haven't heard any reports of a kid going missing, so that makes it the good news of the day I guess." Conan answered, hearing a relieved sigh through the phone. He could sympathize with that relief.

But Conan was far from naivé. He knew that even though no kid had gone missing, it didn't mean they were in the clear. It was highly probable that the killer already was in preparation for his next kidnapping. If Conan's theory was correct and this resembled an addiction to the killer, then the more time passed between killings, the more the craving would worsen. Which ultimately would cause the monster to emerge from its lair again. The killers seemingly insatiable hunger would see to that. In the end, it was only a matter of time when the next kid would turn up missing.

_Damn, if there would only be some sort of lead…_

Thinking about everything, Conan once more lost himself within his own thoughts again. He almost forgot that he was currently on the phone and technically in the middle of a conversation. That fact made it through his swirling thoughts just in time to catch Hattori's next question.

_Someone is inquisitive today..._

"So, tha's ten victims so far, right? There really was nothin' these kids had in common? Feels like there's somethin' we aint seein' here..." Hattori asked, his voice growing ever more quiet. Obviously the last bit was just a spoken thought. Nevertheless, Conan had to agree. It did feel like there was something they were missing. For the moment however, he just concentrated on answering his friend as best he could.

"Megure-keibu had their background checked. They went to different schools, lived in different neighbourhoods, they didn't even know each other."

"Common interests, then? Maybe they were into th' same kind o' stuff…" his tanned friend supplied, his tone indicating that he'd fallen into that contemplative mood both detectives so often found themselves in when they started reasoning with each other.

"Already checked." Conan replied without missing a beat, "Their interests varied greatly, and they all vanished under different circumstances. Some were even with their parents when they vanished, like Higuya Hanako. Enode Katsuro was on his way home from school; last confirmed location was the school gates. Takayama Yumi was last seen in the shopping district. All of the kids were doing completely different things prior to their disappearance," Conan concluded after counting off.

The line went silent for a few moments, while both detectives puzzled over the same riddle: why the hell did he pick these kids in particular?!

"Remind me again, who were all these kids, and what were they doin' before vanishin'? Perhaps there really is somethin' we've o'erlooked." Hattori requested, causing Conan to force down a tired sigh.

He'd been going through this stuff all day. Would chewing down the data really do that much good at this point? Conan sighed tiredly; he couldn't blame his friend for being thorough. The shrunken teen would have done the same thing in his position, but it didn't change the fact that he'd ran through the data so often that he could probably recite it from memory with his eyes closed. He had also told Hattori the details before, but as the tanned detective wasn't in the habit of taking notes, he sometimes needed to listen to everything again. And he was right; perhaps there WAS something they missed. As the old cliché stated: _Two heads are better than one_.

"Fine, excluding the ones I just mentioned, we also have Tozawa Minoru. He was last seen in a book store close to Beika Station. Tomoi Haruki was last seen in a candy shop in Ikebukuro. Tanaki Honami's last location was at home; she vanished on her way to a friend's house. Okuda Hitomi was last seen entering the park…"

"Oktuda Harumi… the park ya—" Hattori mumbled, obviously thinking to himself. This jolted the smaller detective out of his recital, causing him to interrupt the teen.

"Oy, listen properly! It's OKUDA HITOMI! O-KU-DA HI…" Conan suddenly fell silent from his juvenile explanation.

"How the hell did I miss that?!" he exclaimed heatedly. Conan was stunned. The trick was so simple, yet he had missed it. For the moment, the little detective forgot all about the fact that he was on the phone, as he rapidly listed all the names in the closest notebook he could find. Then, he proceeded to sound them out.

It was so simple that it was downright ridiculous. _Absurdly simple_, Holmes would have called it. The solution had been right in front of him the entire time, and he had missed it. He should have been able to spot that from the very beginning.

"Hattori, hang on for a moment, okay?" Conan rushed out, not even waiting for an answer from his tanned friend. He was already reaching out for the research papers and marked books, rapidly rifling through them until he had found what he was looking for. A small, but triumphant smile spread across the child-like face, as he suddenly realized the connection between the children. He knew how the killer chose his victims.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Conan breathed as he stared at the terse paragraph, his brain shifting gears once more to incorporate what he had just understood into his theories.

"What?! Kudo, what the fuck is going on?!" Hattori barked angrily, obviously getting a little impatient with his friend's lack of sharing. He was evidently not pleased at being left out of Conan's thoughts. Taking a deep breath, the shrunken sleuth prepared himself to elaborate.

"Hattori, this is going to sound weird, but just listen okay? I think I just figured out how this guy finds his victims." Conan deliberately spoke slowly.

"'Kay, I'm all ears here, Kudo." came the answer, calmer now. Hattori knew when he should pipe down and listen. He recognized that specific tone of voice. Conan had figured something major out.

"Right, it's obvious that the kids have nothing clear in common, which is why this has somehow escaped me for so long. It's so juvenile, but as soon as the names were said out loud, I realized the connection instantly: all of these kids names, first to last, have exactly six syllables when you sound it out. Not all of them have six Kanji, but when you speak the names and count the syllables, you always arrive at six," Conan all but rushed out, his voice a mixture of excitement and dread, "Damn it, I knew something was bugging me, but I had no idea it was something like THAT."

Conan grew quiet for a moment, allowing his friend time to process that theory, as he listened to Hattori quietly sound out the kids names.

"O-ku-da Hi-to-mi… Ta-na-ki Ho-na-mi… Ta-ka-ya-ma Yu-mi…" he said quietly to himself, before the Osakan exploded, "You're right! Kuso, that prick! I hate this bastard even more now. He's choosin' 'em because o' their names! This has gotta be some power play for 'im."

"My thoughts exactly. Not only does he toy with everyone on this case, but he also makes it harder on himself by creating such a constricting condition. What are the chances that you can even find this many children with 6 syllable names?"

"I guess that answers the question why he chose Tokyo; it's the most heavily populated. There's a greater chance of him finding his victims there than anywhere else in Japan," Hattori added.

"It's like he makes it hard on purpose; he likes the challenge. Choosing and stalking the prey must all be a part of this sick bastard's game." Conan was grinding his teeth by the end of the sentence. What kind of twisted person could consider human lives, _children's lives_, as mere numbers on a scale? It made Conan sick to just think about it. The complete and utter disregard of life that this killer showed disgusted him. For the shrunken sleuth, who viewed life as the most precious thing in the entirety of the universe, there could be nothing more disgraceful than taking it away. Especially while using such a way to pick the victims.

"I …" Conan suddenly went quiet as his free hand began working something out in his notepad.

"Kudo, what is it?!"

"Though this might just be a coincidence—" Conan was hesitant to voice his opinion at first, but knew he was on the right track.

"As if we still believe in coincidences…" Hattori interrupted him quietly, but fell silent as to let the mini-tantei continue.

"… but the amount of time the killer keeps the kids before killing them is related to the number six. 72 is a multiple of 6: 6 time 12 to be exact. Then I remembered something I read in one of the reference books I have here. It says that some Serial Killers can develop an obsession with a specific number that correlates to something directly linked to them or their past. Like the year of birth or death of a loved one or something like that. So now we have three numbers: 72, 12, and 6. 72 is the number of hours he keeps the kids. 6 is the number of syllables in the names, but I have no idea how the 12 fits into all this…" Conan finished, absently rubbing his chin.

There was a short silence as both detectives tried to find a solution as to why there was a 12 there. Of course, 12 was the double of 6, mathematically speaking, but there had to be something else. It couldn't just be there for its mathematical purpose, there had to be something deeper to the 12.

"Wha' 'bout th' kids?" Hattori asked suddenly, causing Conan to frown confused. The sentence had come so abruptly, that he couldn't follow his counterpart's thoughts.

"What about them? They don't have anything to do with 12."

"No. I mean, wha' if he intends to take 12 kids? I know tha' sounds weird, but think 'bout it. From what I got, this guy is systematical. Even though we don't know why, he's obsessed wit' numbers, so wha' if everythin' he does is ruled by 'em?" Hattori elaborated, his own brain obviously having switched gears as well.

"I see. So the cops have found ten bodies as of now. So, if your reasoning is correct, he's going to kill 2 more kids. Kuso!" Conan cursed under his breath.

"At least, now, we can stop him," Hattori added.

"I know, but if we realized this sooner, I—we could have saved those kids." Conan scolded himself harshly. He knew logically, that he couldn't change events anyway, but emotionally, he still felt responsible for it.

Hattori sighed before speaking, "There ain't anything ya can do about tha' past. All we can do now, is use what we know ta stop this bastard!"

"Your right," Conan said with a small smirk. His friend was always there when he needed it. "I can tell myself anything I want. It's not going to change anything. We'll just head him off this time."

"That's the spirit!" his Osakan counterpart agreed.

A lot more was accomplished today than Conan would have thought. Everything made more sense now; every number related to something. The weird MO, the time frame between kidnapping and killing, the kids themselves: everything started to click into place.

"Okay, we know 6 is related to the names, that's his MO for finding the kids," Conan continued, eager to get out of his own little pity-party.

"Right an' 12 could be how many kids he ultimately wants ta take… It's a stretch, I know, but there are jus' so many coincidences tha' I doubt they're really jus' tha'."

"I see what you're getting at. I just hope you're wrong, because that means we have two more possible victims on our hands, because it doesn't look that this guy will stop until he reaches his quota. Right now, we have 10. I'd hate to think what would happen after he reaches 12. I highly doubt a deranged maniac like that would just stop cold turkey and become a model citizen. Especially not since I think he's a narcissist. He NEEDS the attention the public is giving him at the moment; there's no way in all hell that he'll stop after he reaches 12. We need to find him before it gets that far."

Conan fell silent, already thinking about a way to provide the old man (and through him the police) with this new piece of information without risking a noogie. Just the thought of it made his head hurt.

Hell, by this point, the shrunken teen would have cheerfully accepted a skull fracture, if it only gained them the upper hand. With an MO like that, they could single out the kids that were potential targets. And if they kept an eye on them, they would sooner or later find someone lurking nearby. Perhaps not the most graceful way to trap someone, but it was still effective.

There was however one thing that made it through the haze of Conan's thoughts. Namely something his Osakan counterpart said, "Ya don't know anyone who fits tha' description, do ya?"

The shrunken tantei froze.

Quickly, Conan mentally listed all the kids he knew or had met and checked their name's syllables. And just like that, his blood turned to ice in his veins as he paled.

_No! That's not possible… It can't be!_

He did know one specific kid that both fit the preferred age as well as having that characteristic about the name. Only one kid of all the kids he knew had six syllables in their name.

"Oh, fuck! Hattori, I gotta go!" he shouted.

"Wai—" Hattori was cut off as Conan shut his phone and was halfway out of the house, no longer caring about the mess he left behind.

In a flash of flurried movement, spurred by a dread he seldom experienced, he grabbed his skateboard and was out the door in less than ten seconds. Panic gripped him, as he shot through the streets, activating his glasses to help find his friend. Conan completely ignored the rules of traffic, but at that moment, he couldn't bother with something like that. His only imperative was to find the next potential victim, the one person among his friends that fell into the killer's MO.

Yoshida Ayumi.

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Wow, looks like someone has a really long day... Again I say, sorry for the cliffhanger, but I could not avoid it... Normally I try to head around cliffhangers, but in this case, it was just not possible... Still hope you guys like it *gg* And sorry that this chapter is somewhat short, the next one will be considerably (translate: ridiculously) longer than this one to make up for it. We're in the process of piecing it together right now and since Springbreak is around the corner, we expect the next chapter to be uploaded faster than this one. So stay tuned, the action is coming...

Sincerely, Callie


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: My dearest readers and loyal fans, long have you endured the wait for this installment and finally I announce its presence! We are back! At last we return from our brief hiatus. 

The reason for this was simple and I believe you will understand us once more. My trusty comrade's and co-author's finals were up and rudely interrupted with our schedule. We should be used to this by now, but for reasons unknown to us, it took us by surprise^^ Anyway, we talked and agreed that she should concentrate on her finals for that moment, as the story would not run from us. To make up for the longest wait ever (hopefully), this is THE longest chapter I have ever written. We tried to split it in half, but simply could not find a right angle to do so. It felt better keeping it all attached to each other. In consequence, this has galloped away from us and has grown insanely large. Also, I really wanted that fictional day to end^^ 

And we love it!

Updates might be a bit haltingly from now on, as TwilightReader1 has informed me that during her summer break she will be working a lot, so she might not always be able to work on the chapters with me. We just mean to warn you before-hand. And while we're on the subject, let me assure you again, I WILL FINISH THIS STORY! Therefore there will be no need for worries my friends. 

Thank you for the immense interest and the amazing support you've shown us during the chapters published before and we hope the length of this chapter makes up for the incredibly long wait you've had to endure. 

Stay strong my friends, we finally come to the good stuff! And thank you all for the tremendous amount of cyber-cookies we received, I believe we can send the chibi to therapy after all... He looks like he might need it^^ 

Spelling errors found may be kept for personal entertainment, though I did try to find them all... But on occasion, even my correcting feature decides to overlook them^^

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**Tuesday 21st September 2011**

**Late Afternoon**

The day had been bright and though the sun had already begun its journey to meet the horizon, it was still quite warm and seemingly peaceful. At a nearby playground children ran around and parents sat chatting with each other. To an outside observer it would have seemed the epitome of tranquil harmony, but to anyone who looked closer it was obvious that it was all one giant act. The children were not as energetic as usual, more often than not glancing to their parents, who kept them under a watchful eye. More than was common.

The appearance of such harmony did not faze the man watching them. No matter how hard they all tried, he could not be deceived. They were frightened. Feared for their children and guiltily hoping some other person's child would be taken. But he hardly paid the adults any heed. He watched the children run around and his excitement grew. Everything was ready, his trap was perfect. He had used it on so many children before and she, just like all the others, would traipse right into it. It was flawless.

Now, it was only a matter of keeping his roaring desire to possess her in check. He needed to be patient for this to work, to wait until this little angel was close enough for him to take action.

He knew it was risky to take her during the day, but any later would have been near impossible. Most children were no longer allowed to be outside when the shadows crept closer, wrapping the world in a cocoon of calming darkness.

_So he needed to take her now... and damn the risk. _

He had planned for this moment, had thought of every contingency; he could not fail. Not with his intelligence. He feared nothing anymore, especially not discovery. He'd been sitting calmly while two police officers were in the same room with him. He could not be outfoxed by mere children. No one was a match for his might, nor could they even hope to challenge his intellect. Smugness radiated from his being. His confidence in his might was well placed, he truly believed there was not one single person that could rival his skills. Though it was somewhat disappointing to realise this. For a mind like his, it would be ideal to be pitted against the ultimate foe, he lacked a counterweight, so to speak. He would like nothing more than to make the game more challenging by having an opponent worthy of crossing blades with him. He would still win, of course, but there was no better way than to show his superiority.

Carefully his eyes roamed the surrounding area again. He knew she was bound to come this way, she always did. He'd taken the time to follow her around for a few days and thus knew her habits. After all, children, as all humans, were creatures of habit. They took the same path every day, the same street-crossings and ate at the same place each and every day. Their predictability would be their downfall, especially since it made following people that much easier. And delightfully entertaining. A cruel smirk slid across his twisted expression.

The girl, for instance, stopped at the same convenience store every morning to get a can of soda. Then, after school had ended, she stopped at the same store again to buy some candy. She did the same things, took the same route, and just before she took the shortcut through Beika Park she stopped to gaze at a store window. A quick examination had swiftly revealed what had captured the small brunette's interest. The window belonged to a toystore and a gaudy Western porcelain doll was currently on display there. It told him all he cared to know about the girl.

_The perfect bait..._

After the store, she'd cross through Beika Park, the only place convenient to take the small girl. But first, he had to lure her away from her friends, dull as they were. After all, it was only a thin, apparently smart boy and a big, rather lumpy fellow, who didn't seem very bright by comparison. On occasion, he'd also seen another boy wearing glasses with them, but he hoped the glasses-kid would be absent today. The killer had quickly discovered that this boy was an obstacle. Not a big one, mind you, but an obstacle nonetheless. His sharp, piercing gaze rarely missed anything.

That brat was alarmingly alert to his surroundings and so forced the maniac to maintain his distance. Also, when four-eyes was there, the other three kids stuck closer to him than a leech with separation anxiety. But, to the killers immense pleasure, the boy had not been present when he'd followed the girl earlier, and thus he could concentrate on obtaining his target. Namely, the small brunette girl with the pink hair-band and those round, trusting eyes.

Eyes that would soon spark and blaze in terror as they gazed up at him, while her innermost being realized she would die at his hands.

_Glorious indeed..._

He barely restrained an anticipating shudder as he imagined her gaze. His pupils dilated as his body was flushed with adrenaline. He was becoming too excited with the thought of how lovely it would be to witness these three beautifully long days of fun and games that awaited him. He could hardly contain his eagerness for it to begin.

As he hid himself and watched from afar, his plans started to become reality, making his heart race. Now it was only a question of having the patience to wait until she would be near enough.

_It's really only a matter of time..._ he thought smugly, knowing she would soon be there to spring the trap.

The deranged man looked at his watch to confirm the time. She always came through here right about this time. It also did not matter that she was not alone today. He had taken far more difficult targets; and this one was only guarded by two small boys, who were seemingly only slightly older than she was. The two boys could be avoided, they were no threat. It was easy prey for him. Now the girl was his main goal and his target.

The hunt was on.

Shuddering in anticipation, he crouched down lower. The park was not completely deserted and he could not risk being seen before he had his playmate with him. Nevertheless, he had carefully laid out the route he meant to take to exit the small grove of trees around him. As soon as he had her, he would be able to literally vanish. Now, he only had to wait for her arrival.

The killer carefully peeked through the shrub he crouched behind, his heart jittering an exited beat as he finally caught sight of her. Laughing and chatting with her friends, she became the centre of his focus. Her demeanour was all carefree jokes and innocent smiles.

_To think that soon she'll be using her lungs to scream and beg for mercy... _

His eyes sparked as he thought of that, his mouth twisting into a deranged grin. His eyes hushed to the gift he had set for her, the bait to his trap, as it were. He just wanted to ensure it was still there. She would pass by it and then the trap would fall shut. He could hardly wait for that moment.

He'd already spent three agonizingly long days imagining all the fun he could have with this little angel. How her eyes would cloud with fear and pain, to the point where he could see it happening in front of him, even with his eyes wide open.

As he watched her get closer, his world narrowed to focus on nothing but the girl and her reactions. She walked together with her friends, chattering idly away, as the killer drowned out everything but her voice. Soon, so very soon, that voice would rise in pitch as pain would claim her thoughts and fear would rule over her. His hands shook as his brain thought of every delightful scenario his deranged mind could concoct.

_Calm down... You'll alert her otherwise... _

He sternly shook himself. He could not let this one get away.

He took a silent, but deep breath as he watched her, seeing his plan starting to work out, as he knew it would.

The girl let her gaze wander and after a little while her eyes settled on the gift he'd set for her; the Western porcelain doll she had admired, all curly hair and frilly dress. At first, she did not seem to see it, but then her eyes wandered back to settle on the doll as her steps slowed gradually until she stood. Such a typical reaction, he privately thought. The two boys predictably wandered on, unaware that the girl had stopped.

_Perfect... Everything falls into place... _

The two boys passed the edges of his focus and his gaze zeroed in on her. She stood not more than 10 meters distant from him, and it took all his willpower to remain where he was and not rush out to grab her. He was too cautious for that. He could not risk the girl seeing him yet, could not risk her screaming.

_Not yet..._

And then she moved: a first hesitant step towards the gift. Her eyes nervously glanced to the trees surrounding the place, causing the murderer to frown a little. Seemingly, this girl was different. She was more alert than the others.

_No matter... It will not help her anyway..._

He kept absolutely still, literally unmoving, quieting his breath until it was inaudible. Silently, he willed the girl to come closer, close enough for him to grab her and pull her out of sight.

Another step, another furtive glance, she was coming slowly closer, her eyes set on the gift for her. Her small, thin eyebrows knitted together almost suspiciously. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to peer through the shade of the tree in front of her as she took another step.

_That's it... Come closer, little angel... Just a little more... _

Then it was like time had ceased to exist as the girl did something he had not expected. Something no other child had done so far. Her body came to a complete standstill, her gaze still fixed on the doll. She seemed to be more careful than he had thought.

_Baka... That's impossible..._

He could not wait any longer. This was bordering on ridiculous. Just as he was ready to finally give into his desire to rush out and grab her, damning the consequences of eventually being seen, two things happened at once. The first, and most prominent thing was that she took a step - backwards. The curiosity in her eyes had shifted into suspicion. The girl continued to edge back until she had reached the path behind her once more.

The murderer was shell-shocked; this had never happened before.

And the second thing was that four-eyes careened around the corner on a skate-board, his eyes practically all over the place, his small face the picture of fury. The looks this boy cast around were much too aware, too obviously searching. The kid shouted the girl's name and pulled a squealing stop right in front of her.

Angrily the killer balled his hands into fists. He had been so close! His plan had been perfect; there should have been no disruptions! His temper flared. This was the first time something like this had happened. No one had ever gotten away from him, especially not a child.

_Damned four-eyed brat! _

If it hadn't been for that kid's appearance, he would have the girl with him now! But now, that the glasses-kid was there, the girl was out of reach! Furious he bared his teeth in a raging snarl.

The hunt was over for now.

He quickly rushed over and grabbed the doll, hiding it under his coat as he slunk away, his hateful gaze darting ever to the boy with the glasses.

His beautiful opportunity, his perfect plan, had been foiled. And ultimately it was the fault of that little brat!

* * *

**Tuesday 21st September 2011**

**Early evening**

Conan's heart nearly jumped out of his chest and his throat closed up as he made the mistake of imagining everything that could have happened already. He rushed through the streets at breakneck speed, recklessly tearing through intersections with no regard for his personal safety. All he cared about at the moment were the three small dots on his glasses that signalled the position of Ayumi and the others. He would have tried to contact them via the badges, but as bad luck would have it, he had left his at the Agency this morning. Also, none of them were picking up their cell-phones, which only fuelled the dread the shrunken detective felt. Seeing as there were no more options left, he was faced with only one alternative: Get to their position as fast as possible and make sure Ayumi was taken care of.

The mini-tantei knew that Mitsuhiko and Genta were with her, the tracking feed proved that, as it showed three dots. At least they were taking his order to stick together seriously. But that didn't mean the chibi allowed himself the luxury to relax.

Conan needed to find his friends and get them off the streets. At least as long as it took him to think of a plan to head the killer off before he got too close to Conan's friends.

It felt as if his nightmares had suddenly sprung to violent reality and for the first time in a really long while, he felt truly and utterly afraid. He was terrified that one of his friends would get harmed before he managed to get there. He feared that it would end like in his nightmares, where he was always too small or too slow to change events. He'd never forgive himself if Ayumi got hurt because he had not figured out the killer's MO earlier. He should have been quicker, should have been smarter. Now, because of his blind oversight, Ayumi might be the next target.

_I have to find her..._

He hated to admit it, but experience had taught him that it was usually Ayumi that was sidetracked the easiest. She would spot something or hear something and go alone to check it out. Not that curiosity was a bad thing, at least not from a detective's point of view, but she was too naïve to be suspicious of people around her. How often had they encountered murderers who were able to play 'model citizen' so effortlessly that it was hard to believe their crimes exceeded an unpaid parking ticket?!

With this killer, the danger was upped by a lot of notches, which was why he sped through Tokyo's streets in such a hurry, took dangerous shot-cuts and pushed the skateboard to its limit, as he blindly disregarded all rules of the road and weaved through traffic.

The location of the dots seemed to be moving slowly, but steadily towards Beika Park. Which was the normal route Ayumi took when on the way home.

What had him concerned was the fact that it seemed to him as though she wanted to cross through the park, even though he'd told them to stay around as many people as possible. While the park was far from being completely deserted, it still had more trees than people and plenty of places to hide, even for an adult. Not exactly a route Conan would have suggested for them, even if the park meant a 10-minute short-cut. They had chosen on the quickest route, not the safest, which unsettled the shrunken sleuth somewhat.

Quickly, he called Professor Agasa to pick them up by the park-entrance, if only to ensure himself that Ayumi would get home safely.

As he drew closer to the park, he noticed the moving pattern of the dots changing. Two appeared to be moving further north, while one simply stopped moving, as if the person wearing the badge had stopped walking. When Conan saw that, his blood ran cold. His heart was racing and his mind froze before going into overdrive, because in that one precious split-second, Conan knew what happened. And what was going to happen, if he did not get there in time. A shiver travelled down his spine as the urgency and severity of the situation intensified about a hundred fold. All his detective instincts were on red alert, he knew; simply _knew_; that the girl was the next target. His instincts were something he never doubted, they had led him well all his life. He had learned to listen to them long ago and right now, they were practically screaming at him to hurry.

Just as he saw the park-gates some distance ahead of him, his heart skipped several beats as he saw that one dot move even further away from the other two, towards the centre of the park.

_Damn it all to Hell, why can't they ever do as they're told?!_

Fear consumed his core, coldly biting terror at seeing that dot move away. A dangerously sharp curve took him into the park. Now, he was less than 500 meters and one curve away from the position of that dot. He hoped to Hell that it was not already too late, but that dot continued to move oddly. Even though he had no way of knowing whether that dot was truly Ayumi or not, he could not ignore the gut-wrenching feeling that she was in danger.

_Please, don't let it be Ayumi... _

He would not be able to stand it if she was taken next. Not that it would be any better if another child got picked, but he wanted to keep his friends safe at the least. He wanted to keep three kids out of the line of fire, whatever the cost. He couldn't explain that urge to its core, he just felt like he owed it to them after all the danger he regularly dragged them into.

Conan was sure that by now he had broken several laws of physics with the speed he was going, but it still did not feel fast enough. He kept trying to go faster, but to him it felt as if he was moving through thick, invisible slime. Every movement felt too slow, every second felt like hours dragged by.

Then he rounded the last corner, fully taking in the scenery in front of him with one sweeping glance. The small sleuth believed he had the equivalent of a small stroke, though he suspected his brain was merely reacting to seeing Ayumi in front of him, perfectly all right and unharmed. Standing on the very edge of the path.

_Who knows how long she stood there by herself?!_

He took a squealing stop about three feet from her, his frantically pounding heart causing his breath to come in short, ragged gasps.

"Conan-kun!" she shouted excitedly, moving to stand in front of him.

"W-what.. are you... doing here?! Wh-where ... are ... the others?" Conan panted out, willing his breathing back under control and his heart-rate to return to a normal level, while he already felt anger bubbling dangerously upwards. He witnessed Ayumi taking an unsure glance around herself.

"They were here a second ago. We all wanted to go to Mitsuhiko-kun's house to play a little bit more."

Even as Ayumi said that, the two boys jogged into view behind the girl. As soon as they spotted her, their eyes lost the fear and they drew closer.

"Ayumi-chan, there you are! Mou... don't scare us like that!" Mitsuhiko moaned, a slight frown tugging on his expression. Conan was suddenly aware that the boy had no idea how terrible things could have ended for them all. It was that innocent expression his friends sported that caused Conan to clamp down hard on his anger (even though he felt like fighting a losing battle), infusing his voice with an eerie sort of calmness.

"Where were you guys? I thought I'd told you to stick together." he asked, his voice calm on the outside, but plainly accusing on the inside. Unconsciously he balled his hands into fists.

"We were!" Genta threw back, obviously caught between pouting and indignation. It was that precise level of cluelessness that sent Conan's emotion skittering over the edge.

"THEN WHY WAS AYUMI-CHAN ALONE?! I TOLD YOU TO BE CAREFUL WITH THIS MANIAC ON THE LOOSE!" Conan had been close to explosion before, but had somehow managed to fight the impulse down. Now, his emotions decided to take action for once. After all, one can only bottle up intense emotion for so long before everything just came right out.

"We were together, Conan-kun," Mitsuhiko tried to explain, if only to make Conan stop shouting, "we thought she was behind us the whole time, I swear." A sad look crossed the lean boy's face. The worry in his eyes was enough to make Conan instantly regret his harsh words. He knew, that while he had tried his hardest to protect them from the danger this case posed, in the end it was because of him they knew of this case to begin with. The small sleuth managed to keep a straight face to hide his inner turmoil; a poker-face that rivalled even KID's. Mitsuhiko continued to talk, desperate to explain this situation.

"We were walking when we became aware that Ayumi-chan was rather quiet. When we didn't see her with us, we immediately turned around and came back."

"It couldn't have been more than a few minutes!" Genta threw in, crossing his arms over his wide chest, as always unwilling to admit fault. The bulky kid didn't like to be wrong, especially if that resulted in disappointing his friends. Therefore he would always defend his actions, hoping that it truly hadn't been his fault, but Conan was in no mood to entertain him at the moment. For a moment he could only stare at Genta's harsh words, ignorant to his brain's protest that they were only children. As a result, Conan felt a muscle under his eye twitch; it always happened when he was either extremely annoyed or immensely angered with someone. In this case, it happened to be both.

"A few minutes is all this guy would need! Geez! What if something had happened to Ayumi-chan?" the shrunken teen shot back, forcing himself to stop yelling. He reminded himself that while he only looked like a child, they were actually children. Yelling at them would not help.

The two boys in front of him jerked simultaneously, as the true danger of the whole situation finally sunk in. Instantly, their eyes became filled with fear and they lowered their heads, breaking eye-contact with the irate detective.

"Sorry." they both chorused. They weren't used to Conan shouting at them, but they knew that when the small tantei was at the point of shouting, he usually had a very good reason to. Shame dawned in their eyes and posture. These kids tried everything to act mature and responsible so adults would take them seriously, but at that moment they were reminded of their own carelessness. They understood all the things that could have happened to their female friend and were sorry they had not paid proper attention.

Conan took a few deep breaths in an effort to calm himself back down again, though the anger still lingered. Just as Conan was about to say some more things, Ayumi decided to intervene.

"I wanted to show you guys something!" she said.

Out of everyone, Ayumi was the most innocent and arguing around her always made her uncomfortable. In her innocence she had diverted the conversation to make them focus on something else. At this, Conan had to huff a quite laugh that melted most of his anger at the carelessness of the kids. Turning, he gave her his undivided attention.

"Now you can have a look at it too, Conan-kun! Look, there's a doll over there," the girl pointed to a tree some 10 meters off the path, but when everyone turned, they saw nothing by the tree, "Huh? That's weird. It was there a second ago." Ayumi turned a puzzled glance to Conan, who stood rooted, his brain going into overdrive.

Deductions swirled through the shrunken sleuth's mind at what felt like the speed of light. He thought about all the possible reasons why a doll would suddenly disappear from sight. In the span of less than four seconds, he came to only one conclusion, and it nearly made him nauseous. The killer had indeed been here and had set a toy down to lure Ayumi away from the others.

His earlier deduction had been right: the small brunette to the left of him was the next target. And apparently she had been only seconds away from being kidnapped. Instinctively, he turned and gave the two chagrined boys behind him a stern glance. Though he couldn't hide the worry that was so ever present when someone dear to him was in any sort of danger. Catching on rather quickly for a child his age, Mitsuhiko's eyes sharpened in intensity for a moment.

"We're leaving. Right now." Conan ordered, ignoring the questioning glances of his friends. He turned around and quickly picked up the discarded skateboard, before turning back to the kids. "I've called Hakase... He's going to give you a ride home."

Conan was about to start walking when Genta exclaimed, "I don't want to go home yet! I wanted to try Mitsuhiko's new game!"

Feeling the muscle underneath his eye twitch again, Conan turned once more, facing the bulky kid again.

"This is not a discussion, Genta. We're leaving." He drove the point home by mustering up the most intimidating look he could find. With no room left to argue, Genta visible deflated, while Mitsuhiko nodded in agreement. The last thing the thin boy wanted was for Conan's anger to be directed at him.

Before finally walking towards the park-entrance once more, Conan threw a last glance to the tree Ayumi had indicated. There were several bushes behind and to the side of the tree, large enough to hide the crouching form of an adult. It was also seemingly the only spot in the entire park that was only visible from one angle. In short, it was right to this guy's liking. The shrunken teen huffed a quiet sigh, because all of that was useless information now. That maniac was likely already halfway across town by now. His plan was interrupted, he would not stick around and chance getting caught. No... he was much too smart for that. With another quiet huff, Conan finally started walking, albeit very slowly.

As the kids followed obediently; sensing that the small detective would not tolerate further attempts to discuss matters; Mitsuhiko spoke up from his position next to Ayumi, while Genta was still busily muttering something about having to follow orders from a shrimp under his breath.

"Ne, Conan-kun," the thin boy began and Conan turned his head to give a silent, questioning glance, purposely ignoring the overly loud muttering behind them all, "Why are you here all of a sudden?" Mitsuhiko paused briefly, before continuing confusedly. "I thought you said you had something to do today." the freckled boy said quietly, his gaze straying over the shrunken teen's face to guess his intention.

Conan suspected the thin boy could see the pensive lines on his face, while he silently debated whether he should think of a believable excuse to explain his sudden appearance or just tell the truth to his friends. In the end, Conan settled for the latter. It was better if these kids were warned properly; it gave them an edge over the killer. Plus, they deserved the truth at this point. Everyone knew what was at stake here and he wanted them to pay the utmost attention to their surroundings.

Conan turned back to the front before speaking.

"I... I'll explain when we get to the car, okay?" he answered. Conan could feel the weariness creeping back into his bones, now that the adrenaline-rush started to subside. He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling tired beyond measure. Apparently, this answer satisfied the freckled kid, because he didn't ask any further questions. For a moment, Conan could imagine his friend's face grow almost deathly serious, as if he had once more deduced correctly what the true reason was.

The mini-tantei had no time to ponder that any further, as they reached the park-entrance and saw Agasa's yellow beetle drive up. The portly professor hastened out of the car, just as the four kids reached him.

"What happened? What's going on?" the man asked worriedly, levelling a look at the shrunken teen.

Conan however, paid him no mind for a moment. He firmly placed a stern expression over his features and turned wordlessly to the kids, opening the car door. The implication was clear and they silently complied. Waiting until the kids had filed into the car and had taken their seats in the back, he closed the door and motioned for the Professor to come closer.

"Now, will you tell me what's going on, Shinichi?" the man asked, lowering his voice as he used Conan's real name.

"Hakase, I need you to call the police and get them here. I think the killer is after Ayumi now." Conan explained, casting a quick look to the car.

"WHAT?!" Agasa exclaimed before quickly controlling himself for the benefit of the three little one's in the car, worriedly looking down at the shrunken sleuth.

"Ayumi says she saw a doll under a tree, but now it's gone," Conan elaborated, "the killer probably took it away when he saw the chance. I think he placed it there to set a trap for Ayumi. There may be evidence he left behind, since he had to get the doll in a hurry. At any rate, we need to tell the police and get them here, so could you please just call Takagi-keiji? I know he's in on the investigation." the chibi-tantei finished, casting a quick look around, but seeing nothing.

_No great surprise there... didn't expect the bastard to stick around..._

Conan looked back at the portly man in time to see him nod, while pulling out a cell-phone. Leaving the man to call the cops, the faux child returned to the car, opening the door and climbing onto the passenger-seat. He left the door open, to listen with half a mind to the phone call. Without explaining everything about the situation that would normally be required, Agasa managed to put just the right feeling of urgency into his voice, though Conan suspected that was no act. The man was worried and truthfully, so was the detective watching him.

"Conan-kun..." Ayumi's small voice broke his thought, causing him to look back to the girl sitting dejectedly in the back-seat, her small hands clasped tightly in her lap, "I'm sorry looked at the doll and stopped walking with Mitsuhiko-kun and Genta-kun. I didn't mean to make you angry." she said, causing the faux child to sigh heavily.

_Should have known Ayumi would blame herself.._. This was the last thing Conan had wanted.

"I know..." he answered the girl with a sincere smile, "but it's not your fault, Ayumi-chan."

Then Conan's face became serious once more as he turned his full attention to the girl.

"I have a few questions, if you don't mind too much," he asked, waiting for her to nod, before continuing, "You said you saw a doll... Do you remember what kind of doll? What did it look like?"

The girl leaned slightly back, cupping her chin and frowning deeply. The classic thinking-pose these kids had adopted from him.

"It was one of those expensive Western porcelain dolls, I think. You know, like the one in the toy store around the corner."

"Was it a new one? And where exactly was the doll when you saw it?" Conan pressed, eager for more information. If Ayumi knew what it looked like, they could find out where it was sold and who had bought one. This was possibly the slip-up the shrunken sleuth needed to track the elusive killer down.

Ayumi thought for a few moments, before she looked up and began answering his questions.

"It was leaning against the trunk of the tree. I only went a few steps to see it better. I wanted to go back for the others when you showed up. But I remember that it was new. I'm sure about that." the girl answered, locking gazes with the shrunken teen. Suddenly Mitsuhiko turned pale and he sucked in a startled breath.

"Could it have been the same doll you were looking at every day of the past week? You know, the one in the toy store we always pass by on the way to school?" the thin boy threw in, sharing a brief glance with Conan, which confirmed the mini-tantei's suspicion that their thoughts were running in similar directions.

"I... I think it's possible. I can't be absolutely sure, since I didn't go that close. But it could be." Ayumi told them, unsure for a moment.

Before Conan could ask any more questions, the Professor came back to the car, pocketing his phone.

"Takagi-keiji said they'd be here right away and to wait for them. Now, would you please explain what is happening, Sh-...Conan-kun?" the older man asked, slipping slightly on the name. It only happened when the man was too worried to pay proper attention to which name he was using.

The faux child sighed slightly, wondering briefly how to start explaining. He knew it was best to have the kids properly informed, as it would prevent them from taking any foolish actions. But at the same time he didn't want them to get so worried that they would no longer be able to keep a look-out. Taking a deep breath, he decided to simply take the plunge and started talking.

"Okay... I had a phone-call with Heiji-niichan earlier," Conan began, "and while we were talking, we realized something the vanished kids had in common." He purposely avoided the word 'killed', as it would only frighten the kids in the back-seat. However, as soon as he had ended his sentence, four pairs of eyes locked onto him and everyone drew closer.

"Really?!" they all cried in unison. Hope and excitement were fairly radiating from them. They knew that this was precisely what the police puzzled over.

"Yes. It's because of the names. He's counting the syllables."

"But the Kanji..." Mitsuhiko started confused, but was interrupted by the shrunken teen.

"Its not the writing; its the pronunciation. If you speak the names and count, you always get exactly 6 syllables," Conan threw an uneasy glance at Ayumi, causing everyone to frown worriedly and start counting, "He asked me if I knew someone who fits both the age and that characteristic in their name." he finished gravely, looking at Ayumi, who had suddenly turned at least two shades paler. The girl still held her fingers in the air, having counted through her own name. Mitsuhiko's eyes were close to bulging from their sockets as he looked back and forth between Conan and Ayumi. The look in the girl's eyes told Conan that she understood it now.

"Me?!" she whispered frightened, tears already pricking in the corners of her eyes.

Conan could barely stand that scared gaze, and he briefly looked down, wondering what to say now. In the end, all he could think of was a weak: "Yes."

After a moment of silence, during which all of them sat quietly thinking and worrying, Conan had covered up all his fears and managed to slide back into his professional mode. If these kids realized how worried he truly was, they would lose all hope. For their benefit, he had to give off the impression as if things were under control now, even if they weren't.

"I wasn't sure when I showed up... But when you mentioned the doll, plus the fact that it's gone now..." Conan left the sentence unspoken, sighing quietly before continuing, "I have no more doubts about this. But you don't have to worry, Ayumi-chan. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, okay? That's a promise, and you guys should now that I never break a promise, right?" he added, throwing the girl a sincere smile while the others chorused in agreement. No one would permit Ayumi getting harmed and despite her fears, the girl knew this.

Silence descended upon the car for a moment, as everyone came to grips with the true severity of the situation as a whole. Seeing his friends so frightened, Conan cringed inwardly.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you guys," he said quietly to Mitsuhiko and Genta, "but when I tried to call you, none of you picked up your phones. I just got so worried that something might have happened and I snapped. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have behaved like that, it was out of line." Conan apologized, knowing that while these boys now understood why he had been so furious, he had no right to blow up in their faces like that.

_That's why I usually exclude emotion... It clouds the judgement..._

"It's all right. We understand," Mitsuhiko answered with Genta nodding next to him, "So... What do we do now?" the freckled boy asked, looking worried and afraid.

"Right now, all we can do is wait for Takagi-keiji and the police to get here," the shrunken sleuth explained, "Then, the Professor will drive you guys home. Tomorrow morning, you Ayumi-chan, will wait at your place until we three come to pick you up, okay?" He gave the girl a sympathetic look. She was obviously still shaken up by the new information. Conan even doubted she could process everything at the moment, it was quite a lot to take in. She seemed overwhelmed with the situation and he couldn't blame her for that. After all, she was still a child. She did not meet his gaze. Instead, she just sat on the back-seat, her brow creased in worry, while staring at her hands still clasped in her lap. Nevertheless, she gave him the smallest of nods to indicate she had heard him. Looking at the two boys, the shrunken teen continued.

"As long as we stick together, this guy won't be able to get close enough. With no more stunts like this one just now, I think she'll be perfectly fine." This time, Ayumi did look up at him, her scared eyes meeting his reassuring ones. Seeing this, the girl gave a courageous smile and nodded in agreement to his conclusion. She had the utmost faith in Conan. If he promised nothing bad would happen to her, she believed him.

"You stay with us, no matter what the reason is... okay?" the small sleuth insisted, receiving a chorus of agreement. He couldn't help but smile at their determination.

"As soon as the police are completely informed, I'm guessing they'll be posting a guard at the school too, so it should be all right." Conan explained further, but even as he said it, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was lying to them. Considering his track record, things rapidly progressed from bad to worse. This case swiftly spun out of control and the small detective hoped that none of his friends would be caught in the crossfire. But he would not show his worries to them, he didn't want to stress them any more. And even if it killed him, he'd keep his friends safe.

Conan looked up to see his friends nod earnestly and it calmed him down a lot. They knew what was at stake now and would be careful. The mini-tantei turned his head to look at the Professor, still standing next to the car.

"Hakase, can I talk to you for a second?" Exiting the car once more and closing the door behind him, Conan turned to the older man, who waited patiently until the faux child had walked a few steps away from the car, before he addressed the small sleuth.

"Now, I think there's more to this than what you've just said. And since I believe you want me to explain all of this to the police, I would like to be filled in." the older man said, patiently waiting for the shrunken teen to respond.

Conan sighed heavily, for what felt like the billionth time today. Between his irregular sleep-schedule and the research, not to mention the massive panic-attack he'd experienced not 20 minutes prior, he felt close to collapsing.

_Bet I look like it too..._

"Okay, short version is this: the killer is choosing them based on the sounds of their names," The faux child elaborated, getting tired of having to repeat this over and over, "he's obsessed with the number 6 and looks for kids around that age with names that consist of exactly 6 syllables. Yoshida Ayumi has 6 syllables. He keeps the kids for roughly 72 hours, which can be divided by 6, giving 12. And... Hattori thinks he's aiming for 12 kids in total. When I realized that Ayumi could be the target, I got here as fast as I could. And the fact that there has apparently been a doll suggests he's been using toys to bait the kids out of sight. If they ask you, tell them Hattori figured it out. I don't think he'd mind if we use him as a cover for this one. If you tell them that, they'll call him and we'll wing it from there."

As the shrunken teen drew his explanation to a close, he let his skateboard slide to the ground while listening for the sounds of sirens in the distance. So far, there was no indication that the police were getting here.

"If you get stuck, or they ask you something you don't know, tell them Hattori didn't explain that to you. And have Ayumi give them a description of the doll. Mitsuhiko suggested it could be from a store near here. Have them give the address to the police; maybe we can get a description of who bought it." Conan went on, but Agasa interrupted him.

"What exactly do you think you're doing, Shinichi?" the Professor asked, while eyeing the skateboard suspiciously.

"I'll go and have a look at the spot Ayumi mentioned before the cops show up. Occhan doesn't know I'm involved in this and I'd rather he wouldn't find out. The place is not far in either, maybe 500 meters. A big, old birch; the only birch this side of the park. You can't miss it."

"But... do you really think this is a good idea? I mean, this guy could still..." Deep concern spread plainly over the old man's features. Agasa saw that the boy looked like he barely slept, and he knew the small detective hadn't stomached anything noteworthy for a while. He knew the boy would never admit to his own weaknesses, and oftentimes this worried the older man even more. He knew first-hand how strong the shrunken sleuth could be, but he also saw that he was fast approaching his limit. Agasa sighed quietly, knowing that any attempt to reason with the small detective would be a useless effort on his part. Nonetheless, he wished this would end quickly, this case was taking too much toll on the teen-turned-child.

"There's no way he'll stick around after a failed attempt," Conan harshly brushed off the older man's concern, "He's long gone anyway. And I'd like to have a look around before the police get here. Keep an eye on the kids for me, Hakase." the shrunken sleuth ended quickly and without further ado, sped off through the entrance again.

Time was limited as it was, and he wanted to be the first on a scene for a change. Nevertheless, he hoped the kids would be all right in the meantime.

_As long as they stay in the car, they should be okay..._ he tried to convince himself.

Before long, Conan spotted the massive tree Ayumi had indicated earlier. Stopping the skateboard, the shrunken sleuth looked carefully at the huge mass of tree in front and listened for any form of suspicious sounds. Upon hearing nothing, he cautiously walked closer to survey his surroundings. Right in front, the old tree loomed up, its leafy canopy plunging the trunk in deep shadows, while the surrounding greenery gave off the impression as if it was capable of hiding anything.

Vigorously, the faux child shook his head to banish such foolish and overly paranoid thoughts. What he had told the Professor was true; it was unlikely the culprit was still around, the risk of discovery was just too great for him.

_Unless of course, he's feeling invincible by now..._

The small sleuth threw a quick glance around and noticed that hardly any people were left in the park. He could only spot a couple some distance away, just making their way out. Dusk was slowly settling and seemingly no one wanted to be out when it got dark.

_Small wonder..._

Focussing on the task ahead, Conan switched on his watch-light and let the beam circle around. Granted, there was not much to gain on the first glance. The thick grass made it unlikely for footprints to show, but maybe the ground was softer at the base of the tree. Also, the small detective wanted to have a look behind the bushes. For a successful abduction according to this guy's MO, the culprit would have to be insanely close by. Those bushes seemed ideal for that.

Conan mentally excluded the ones that were either too small to hide the crouching form of an adult or had obstructions that prevented a clear line of sight. Quickly, he was able to narrow it down to three possible spots: One on either side of the tree and one slightly to his right.

Carefully, the small sleuth approached the first bush to the left of the tree, taking a relatively wide berth too avoid getting too close too fast. It would help nothing if he found evidence, but accidentally tampered with it. Cautiously he peered behind the first bush, or rather the ground beneath it. Sadly though, there was no indication that anyone had been there lately.

Frowning, Conan rounded the back of the tree, his gaze fixed to the ground, but all his senses on high alert. He knew the risk was slim, but he was not about to let his guard down.

Suddenly, just as he looked at the patch of clear soil beneath the next bush, his eyes spotted an irregularity. Before his brain could process what it was in all detail, he already knew. He simply looked and knew immediately. Carefully getting closer, Conan could discern three individual foot-prints, all from the same kind of hiking boot. And from the looks of it, reasonably fresh.

_Now, there aren't so many people wearing hiking boots in Tokyo..._

A slow smile spread on the detective's lips as he bent to examine his find closer. Someone had crouched here for a while, evidenced by the fact that two prints only showed the front of the boot. Typically, when crouching, the heel of the boot rises, leaving a deeper impression at the balls of the feet. Slightly behind it, there was a complete imprint.

In conclusion, someone had crouched here, but then the same person had stood up and had turned into the direction Mitsuhiko and Genta had come from. Conan quickly took out his cell-phone and snapped a few pictures. He could send those to Hattori later.

The small detective carefully made his way to the front of the tree, checking the ground near the bush. On a protruding root, there was another print, unfortunately slightly smudged, but fresh. Therefore Conan could not be completely sure, but his reason told him that the crouching person could have reached forward to take something positioned at the base of the trunk. The probability that these prints belonged to the culprit they all sought was incredibly high now.

Quickly he typed a few words to Agasa's cell-phone:

_Have them check the ground beneath the bush on the right side of the tree. Found some footprints. Make sure the kids get home safely, I'm heading to the Agency now. _

Personally, Conan would have preferred to go back to his friends, but he'd heard sirens not two minutes before, so the police had arrived. If they realized that he'd snuck off by himself, he'd never hear the end of it. After all, he wasn't supposed to know any of this anyway. He'd probably be grounded for all eternity.

Thinking of that alternative, Conan groaned involuntarily as he remembered he had given Ran no information of where he was or what he was doing, and he had been expected back a while ago. Quickly he typed another mail, this time for Ran.

_Sorry, got caught up in a videogame at the Professor's. On my way home now. Be there soon. _

Hoping this would calm the storm he was sure to face for leaving his 'guardians' in the dark, Conan turned to head out of the park by another exit, while typing yet another message to Agasa.

_Don't mention I was here. Mouri doesn't know I'm on the case. _

As Conan leisurely rolled out of the park, he idly wondered if he would be able to prevent the worst from happening. No matter how this would end though, he was determined to do anything in his power to keep Ayumi and his friends safe. At all costs.

* * *

**Tuesday, 21st September 2011**

**Evening**

When Conan arrived at the Agency, he felt ready to pass out. Weeks had passed since he had felt fully rested and the miniature adult knew that it was beginning to show quite plainly. One night, just one night without the terror he faced in his nightmares would be enough.

Wearily climbing the stairs, the shrunken sleuth absently cursed the architect who had apparently thought people needed a work-out before reaching their destination. He wasn't entirely sure how long it took him to reach the landing on the second floor. His brain rapidly lost the ability to think clearly, a sure sign that he was overdue on some shut-eye.

But damn him, every single time he closed his eyes, the images would return, assaulting his mind when he could not shove it away. Information and data clogged his brain and in the deepest parts of the night, his fears came true in his nightmares. Leaning his skateboard to the wall behind the door, Conan took a moment to rake a hand through his dark bangs, wishing for all the world that he could just pass one night without fear. One night would be enough.

He'd even contemplated sleeping pills before, if only to make his brain shut down for some hours; but he hated the after-effects. On the few occasions he had resorted to artificial means of sleeping, his brain had taken hours to be close to normal working capacity. He just could not risk that with the high stakes he faced right now. He needed to be at his sharpest and quickest to prevent the worst. So sleeping pills were not an option.

Absently, Conan looked at his watch, while his hand was reaching for the doorknob. It was already half past 7. And though he had sent a mail earlier, Conan was still pretty sure he'd have to face Hell as soon as he set foot into the flat, especially since Ran and Kogoro had enforced a strict curfew on him, meaning he had to be home by 6. They had instigated this a little while ago and though it annoyed the mini-tantei, even he saw the foolishness of him staying out after nightfall. Hattori had been right on that point: He was smarter than all the other kids, but that did not change the fact that he still looked like one.

Bracing himself for the inevitable onslaught, the shrunken teen turned the doorknob. On any other day, he might have tried the kiddie-act with Ran to soften the blow, but he lacked the energy to make an attempt today. Not now. Not after Ayumi had nearly been kidnapped.

Cautiously, he set a foot inside and was on the verge of announcing his presence when something came flying for his head. Thank God for his freakishly fast reflexes, as he managed to duck and witness the thing smashing into the wall behind him. A quick look proved his suspicion: someone had thrown a sake bottle at him. And there was only one person in this household that would throw sake bottles.

Then it came, just as he expected: the screaming began.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?! YOU'RE ALMOST TWO HOURS LATE!" By the time the sentence had ended, Kogoro had cornered him, as Conan had instinctively backed away from the irate drunkard. Behind the furious man, Ran advanced also.

_Oh man... This will be brutal..._

Conan tried to argue back, feeling his nerves already stretching way past their natural limit. His tolerance for the drunkard was low on an average day, but this evening, it felt shot to pieces. He didn't get a chance to say anything though, because Kogoro's raging speech continued on.

"I've told you a million god-damned times! You were supposed to be home by six, for heaven's sake!"

Luckily for Conan (and his almost non-existent patience with the drunken man), Ran decided that now would be a good time to step in and protect her surrogate little brother from Kogoro's wrath.

"Mou... Otou-san, I bet Conan-kun didn't mean to be late. And he has sent a mail earlier. I'm sure he just lost track of time." the young woman said calmly while pulling her father lightly back, allowing Conan a temporary reprieve. Then, she turned her gaze towards Conan for a moment. What he could see in her eyes made the shrunken teen stare back, almost in shock. She had a sad, unknown look in her eyes. It almost resembled pity, but that made no sense to Conan. His brow furrowed in confusion. Did he look so drained that he warranted her intervention? He had no time to dwell on that look however, as Kogoro's angry voice pulled is attention back to the present.

"I don't care how many god-damn mails the kid sent! He's supposed to be home at six, that's not a hard rule to follow, now is it?! I'm telling you, that brat lives to defy rules!" Kogoro spat in Conan's general direction. Ran frowned disapprovingly at her father's choice of words, but couldn't be completely angry at him. His reaction was understandable.

On an ordinary day, Conan would have actually agreed with him. On occasion, it was even fun to rile the older detective, even though he got a noogie out of it more often than not. But today had been a simple oversight on his part. He just forgot to inform them and it annoyed him somewhat that the older detective actually thought he had done it on purpose.

Before he could answer and defend his actions however, a third voice sounded off, ironically from behind Conan, in the direction of the still open door.

"Oy, oy... Occhan, take a breath, will ya? Bet da kid didn' do it o' purpose."

Conan would recognize THAT butchered speech anywhere.

_What the fuck is HE doing here?! Why didn't he tell me he was coming here?! This is not going to end well... _

Before he could fully turn around to give his best friend a death glare, Hattori gave him what would have seemed like a normal pat on the back. However, due to Conan's surprise (and general weariness), the friendly pat actually send him stumbling forwards, nearly landing flat on his face. Quickly righting himself, he threw a dark look back to the smug face of the Osakan detective.

Ironically, it was Kogoro who voiced the obvious question still swimming through Conan's mind, as he addressed the tanned teen still crouching slightly behind Conan.

"And what do you want here?!" the irate detective spat, apparently not minding the change in targets for his anger. And still, the smug look on Hattori's face never wavered.

"I 'ad a phone call wit'..." he faltered slightly as he caught Conan's patented death glare, "...wit' Hakase earlier. I was actually on my way ta Tokyo then, jus' ta check in, ya know?" Hattori answered, standing up again and burying his hands in his pockets, still wearing that insufferably cheeky grin. But Conan had to give his friend credit. For someone who was not very good at lying, _period_, he'd managed to conceal his involvement quickly enough.

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming, Heiji-niichan?" Conan asked levelly, still fixing his friend with a glare, which proved to do nothing more than make the tanned teen laugh slightly.

"Ah, I jus' wanted ta surprise ya all, tha's it." Hattori answered, still grinning like the fictional Cheshire cat, and for the thousand and one times they interacted with each other, Conan actually wanted to kick him in the shins. He hated it when we wasn't given all the facts, or was caught off guard.

_I bet that guy was already on the train when we talked..._

Seeing as he couldn't very well explain the entirety of all the happenings here, especially not with Ran and Kogoro standing three steps behind him, Conan opted for subtlety coupled with a bit of needling. He didn't know why exactly, but he simply felt like needling somebody. Though he wasn't sure which one of the two detectives he would end up annoying.

"Well, now that you're here, you can help the police and Oji-san!" he chirped, feeling his lips curve into a slightly mean grin. He knew exactly what effect this little sentence would have and apparently, judging from the faltering smugness on his friend's face, Hattori knew as well.

"I don't need the assistance of that whelp!" True to character, Kogoro took that sentence as implication that he was incapable of solving the case on his own and promptly went for the Osakan's throat. Now it was Conan's turn to look smug and Hattori's to be annoyed, while Kogoro ranted and raved at him.

_Hey, two in one go..._

But at least Hattori understood the hidden meaning Conan had thrown in there. For that, the shrunken teen was immensely grateful. Having someone on the inside would help a lot.

"Tha's wha' I meant ta do." Hattori confirmed, his glare vanishing for a short moment.

"I don't care what you meant to do, but you sure as Hell aren't staying here! I'm not taking in another freeloader!" Kogoro shouted angrily and for once, Conan fully agreed with him. The last thing he needed was for Hattori to see just how shot his nerves truly were. He was grateful for the short distraction his friend had brought, but there was no way he was going to let him stay here. Hattori already seemed like he had an inkling of what Conan was hiding, the small sleuth didn't want to make it worse by confirming it with a nightmare or two.

"Otou-san, don't be so rude! Of course you can stay here, Hattori-kun!" Ran answered, overriding her father's protest with practised ease.

"Over my dead body!" Kogoro shot back, ending the discussion in his usual manner: by retreating back into the flat, mumbling angrily about finding something to drink.

"Don' worry 'bout it, Neechan. I'll find somewhere else ta stay then." Hattori supplied, seemingly deciding to take the better part of valour and temporarily concede. Conan immediately pounced on the opening.

"You could stay at Shinichi-niichan's house. I'm sure he wouldn't mind." the shrunken teen said, allowing his voice to lose it's childish quality towards the end of the sentence, delivering yet another silent message to the tanned teen. After all, Hattori had probably deduced that Conan had left the case-material there.

_Man, I grow tired of subliminal messages..._

"Good idea. I'll give 'im a call later th'n, ta tell 'im I'll crash a' 'is place."

Ran seemed doubtful, but in the end she agreed that it was a better plan than try and convince Kogoro, especially since Conan had no great desire for the other detective to stay either. He didn't want Hattori anywhere near when he bolted from another of his seemingly endless string of nightmares. And by all appearances, the Osakan detective understood that, even though no words were said on the topic.

After a short while, the tanned detective turned to leave, but stopped on the stairs to turn back around, his cheeky grin all but on for show. His eyes had suddenly grown very serious.

"Word o' advice... Get some sleep, a'rite?" was the only thing the tanned teen said, before waving slightly and proceeding down the stairs.

_Would if I could... ba'rou..._

* * *

Finally, we have everyone's favourite Osakan in the game! I so looked forward to adding him in, I'd planned on it from day one^^ I might throw a good load of his POV in the mix, to spice everything up a bit^^ Thank you for reading the chapter and stay strong, we are already working on the next installment! Stay tuned, more action is to come! 

Regards, Caledonia1986 and TwilightReader1


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